The Gaming Magus
by C.O.Y.L
Summary: Nothing much happens in Shirou Emiya's life. He wakes up every morning, feeds Taiga, goes to school, does after school stuff, comes home, feeds Taiga, and then practices his Magecraft to become a hero. Now, add an ability to see the world as one would a game, and suddenly, you have many things happening all at the same time. Fate X The Gamer crossover.
1. Prologue: Enter bathroom, start game

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **XxX**

He wiped the sweat off his brow as he finished his daily exercises. He then stared at the clock behind him, and noticed that it was still barely six. Sakura would be here in fifteen minutes or so, with the tiger not so far behind her. He could still get clean himself up and start on breakfast before they got here.

He exited the dojo, and started his walk towards the bathroom by the entrance. His mind wandered, and he thought about his underclassman.

The addition of Sakura in his morning routines was not an unpleasant one. She had first started coming over to his house during the summer when he had gotten sick. Shinji had come with her, but his friend just came and went with nothing but a get well soon before leaving Sakura to take care of him. He had tried to refuse, but Shinji just gave him a condescending look, before he reasoned that Sakura was a good caretaker. Nothing more was said after that, and Shinji left soon after, he had thanked him before he left though, and Shinji had just waved him away and told him to get some rest.

It sort of flowed after that, with Taiga utterly gushing as Sakura took care of him.

He reached the bathroom and slid the door open. He entered and closed it behind him, making sure to lock the door before he went over to the sink. He opened the tap, before he filled his hands with water and splashed it all over his face. Just another measure to make sure he stays awake.

He wiped his face on the towel he had around his neck, before he looked up towards his reflection.

He stared.

"What the-?" He stared at the words above his head. They were reversed, and it took him a few seconds to understand what they said, but when he did, he was even more confused.

 **Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 4**

 **HP: 266/266 MP: 100/100**

The words and numbers for the HP and MP were both in a bar of sorts, a green one for HP, and a blue one for MP. Aside from that though, he was confused. Why the heck did he even have an HP bar and MP bar?

He had played some RPGs before, so he at least understood that it was a common thing for his name and level to be displayed atop your avatar. But he wasn't in a game, he was in real life, and currently, he was in the process of freshening up in the bathroom. So yeah, he wasn't at all in a game, and this certainly wasn't an RPG.

Wait… why the heck was he so calm? This should be freaking him out. The only thing that could have made this was another magus, so it should be obvious that one was inside his house right now.

But there wasn't, Kiritsugu's bounded field made sure of that. If there was, he would know.

He shook his head, maybe it was just a trick of the light… as impossible as that was, there was just no reason for words to be there. So he ignored it, and went on with his rituals.

As he exited the bathroom, making sure to place the weird floating words to the back of his mind, he thought about what to cook. There was some leftover pork still in the fridge, as he couldn't cook everything yesterday. The pork itself was probably two to three days old, and while it wasn't fresh, it wasn't spoiling either. Still, if he didn't cook the raw pork, it would start soon. Maybe he shouldn't have brought excessively, but hey, it was on sale.

He entered the living room, and walked directly to the kitchen attached to it. He opened the fridge and pulled out the pork. He couldn't marinate them right now, but he could still cook them with some soy sauce and a little bit of spice.

As he reached for the knife to start cutting the pork into pieces however, a… window opened in front of his face, surprising him that he almost let go of the knife.

 **Quest: The most important meal of the day**

 **Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and having breakfast can be the difference between having a good day and a bad one. Cook a good meal for three (Five) to have a good one!**

 **Completion reward: 30 (50) exp.**

 **Increase reputation with Sakura and Fujimura Clan.**

 **Completion failure: Disappointment**

 **Decrease reputation with the Fujimura clan.**

He felt his eye twitch. This was looking more and more like an RPG. Why the heck was it looking more and more like an RPG? And what did the five mean?

Deciding to ignore the window, he tried to swat it away. To his satisfaction, it did leave. He stared down at the pieces of pork that needed to be cut, and smiled. This would be a good distraction… hopefully he'd get it done before Sakura and Taiga got here.

 **The Gaming Magus**

 **XxX**

He was aware both Sakura and Taiga were talking, he was also aware they thought he was in the same conversation. But he wasn't, he was just nodding his head when they looked at him, and though his eyes were looking at them, they flickered upwards. First at Taiga.

 **Fujimura Taiga - Fierce Tiger - Lvl: 48**

And then at Sakura.

 **Matou Sakura - Unofficial Kouhai - Lvl: 230**

He felt his eye twitch as he registered Sakura's level. By all means he should be panicking, but he couldn't. Not right now, not when they were both here talking like everything was normal, and to them, it may as well have been normal. They didn't react like they could actually _see_ what he was seeing, and if he pointed out that he could see words that they couldn't see, he could potentially be branded as crazy with a tendency to hallucinate at best, and outright have delusional tendencies at worst.

"...ight Senpai?" He blinked as his eyes zoned back towards Sakura. She was smiling at him, and again, he nodded his head.

"Right." He said, not at all having followed the conversation. It wasn't until Taiga started laughing and clutching her stomach did he figure out that he walked into a trap.

He frowned. "What?" He asked, more as a means to keep up appearances. Sakura just giggled, which in turn caused Taiga to start laughing louder. His frown deepened. "What?" He repeated.

"N-nothing Senpai." Sakura got her giggled under control, before she adopted an almost pitying look at him. He did not like that look. More because he just _knew_ that he walked into that look. "You just agreed that you're more a housewife than the man of the house."

He flushed. "What!" He then shot an accusing look at the only one that could have possibly made Sakura agree to trap him like that. "Fuji-nee!" He cried in embarrassment.

For her part, Taiga stopped laughing and managed to calm herself before she grinned at him. "Don't blame me. You've been nodding and agreeing with what we say for the entirety of the conversation. You can't blame me for taking advantage." Taiga's face morphed into one of mischief, causing him to sigh and smile a little at her slyness.

"Alright," He nodded his head. You can't tell him he didn't take responsibility. "I wasn't listening. But you didn't have to do that!" She really didn't, though the amount of times Taiga had made a fool of him should have made him used to it, she kept finding ways to just get under his skin, not in a bad way per se, but more to annoy him and cause him embarrassment.

In response to his indignation, Taiga grinned. "You should listen when other people are talking Shirou! Your onee-san raised you better than that!" At this, fake tears suddenly appeared in her eyes. "Oh Kiritsugu, whatever happened to that sweet boy who always listened to people's worries and troubles!"

He sighed, but couldn't stop himself from smiling at Taiga for her demeanor, he was used to this, and from the look of amusement on Sakura's face, it seems she was as well. "Keep talking like that Fuji-nee, and I won't feed you anymore." He threatened with a grin.

In response to his threat, Taiga _really_ started bawling. "Ah! Sakura-chan! Shirou's so mean to his Onee-chan!" Taiga then made a show of running over towards Sakura, before enveloping the younger girl in a hug as she bawled into her chest.

In response to this, Sakura patted the woman's back softly. "Don't worry Fujimura-sensei, even if Senpai won't feed you, I will." Ah Sakura, always the kind soul. He didn't have anything against that, really. But…

"Don't spoil her Sakura." He said jokingly. Of course, he'd never abandon Taiga. He loved her like a sister, albeit a freeloading older sister that acted more like a child than he ever did, but still, a sister. And he wouldn't always be around to freeload off of, so yeah, Taiga had to stop freeloading sometime.

Sakura smiled at him, but before she could say anything, Taiga straightened and recomposed herself. Not that she needed to anyway, she was _always_ like this. "Anyway," Taiga began. "I have to leave a little bit early today. Since it's the first day of classes, teachers are going to have to sit through an orientation." And with that said, Taiga grabbed her bowl of rice, before she gulped down the last bits of it, not at all bothering that there was no more food on the table.

After she finished, she placed the bowl down, and let out a content sigh. "Thanks for the food Shirou!"

 **The most important meal of the day complete!**

 **Reward: thirty exp points!**

 **Your reputation with Matou Sakura has increased by 12 points!**

 **Your reputation with Fujimura Taiga has increased by 12 points!**

 **Your reputation with the Fujimura clan has increased by 6 points!**

 **Level up!**

 **Your hp increased by 30**

 **Your mp increased by 10**

 **You have gained 5 stat points!**

 **You have gained 1 skill point!**

 **You have gained the ability to choose a trait!**

 **You have gained 1 trait point!**

 **You need another 300 exp points to level up.**

He blinked. Oh for the love of-

He looked up, towards his own name and HP/MP bars.

 **Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 5**

 **HP: 276/276 MP: 110/110**

"Shirou?" He looked up, glad to be interrupted from his inner musings at just _what_ was happening to him. He caught the look of worry from both Sakura and Taiga, and could guess they could sense his inner turmoil. "Are you okay?" It was Taiga who asked, and though he really wasn't, with the incoming headache from the confusion of having RPG elements in his life, he still smiled at her.

"Yeah, never better. Why?" He asked, deflecting the issue. He couldn't lie to save his life, but he could deflect. Albeit it was still obviously unconvincing, as Taiga still sported a worried look along with Sakura.

"You've been spacing out for awhile now." Taiga explained as she sat back down, an uncharacteristically morose look on her face.

He frowned, yeah, he guessed they would notice. "Just… thinking about a lot of things." Not exactly a lie. So it wasn't hard to say that. But judging from the understanding look on Taiga's face, as well as the small smile on Sakura's own, he could guess they bought it and were now thinking about something else entirely.

"It's fine Shirou." Taiga said, her voice sounding surprisingly sage and motherly. "Coming into high school isn't something to think about. In fact, it's arguably the same as being in middle-school. Just be yourself." Not exactly what he was thinking about, but still, he could understand and appreciate what Taiga was doing. It was the reason she was his sort-of freeloading sister.

He nodded his head. "Thanks Fuji-nee." He felt like a bad friend/brother. He was lying to both Sakura and Taiga, and here they were comforting him in a subject he didn't have the least bit of trouble with. If he wasn't so worried they would throw him into a loony bin if he told them about the RPG elements that popped out that only he could see, he would have told them.

Still, he could keep a secret. If he could keep his late night activities from being found out by Taiga, and about Kiritsugu being a magus, then he could at least keep whatever was happening to him a secret as well.

Taiga nodded back at him, before she glanced at the clock. "Well, that's my cue!" With that, Taiga went from serious to her normal demeanor. She stood up again, before she started for the door. "I'll see you both later! Don't be late now, Shirou, Sakura!" She waved as she exited the room, leaving him alone with Sakura.

He waved goodbye at his guardian, before he turned towards Sakura. "Let's get to cleaning up." He said as he stood up.

 **Quest alert!**

God dam-

 **Quest: Clean up.**

 **Breakfast is finished, but you still have to clean up. Finish cleaning up before 7:30am or you will be late for school.**

 **Completion award: 45 exp.**

 **Increase reputation with Homurahara Academy.**

 **Completion failure: Decrease reputation with Homurahara Academy and Fujimura Taiga.**

Wait. Why only Homurahara? He would think that failing to clean up would result in a decrease of reputation with Sakura at least. So why-

"Don't worry Senpai." He lifted his head to look at Sakura. She had already grabbed Taiga's plate and had stacked a few of the empty ones by her side. "I'll clean up, you just rest. It's the least I can do for you after you made breakfast."

He smiled at Sakura before he shook his head. "No, it's my house. You rest, I'll clean up." He then made to stand, but a pointed look from Sakura made him hesitate picking up the first place.

"Senpai. It wouldn't feel right for me to just eat and let you clean. I would feel like Fujimura-sensei." She shot him an almost accusing look, as if asking him if he wanted that.

He couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. Well, he supposed he couldn't. "Alright. I'll wash, you dry." A compromise was always good. He didn't want to delegate everything to Sakura.

Sakura for her part however, only smiled at him. "I wash, you dry." Was all she said before she too stood and went over to the sink, carrying with her a majority of the dirty dished used during breakfast. Well, alright then.

 **Your reputation with Matou Sakura has increased by 30 points!**

He did his best to ignore that.

 **XxX**

He had made sure that he was alone in the bathroom, opening every singe stall just to make sure that no one was in there to hear what he was about to say next. Knowing that there was no one, he sighed before he spoke. "Pause."

And with that, everything turned grey. The ceilings, the floor, the stalls, heck, even the sunlight coming in from the small slit windows turned grey. He turned to the mirror, and wasn't at all surprised to see that he was the only one that was not grey.

"I should be surprised." He muttered to himself. But he really wasn't. The fire had been a surprise, and he doubted anything less than something equivalent to that would surprise him.

Without anything else to do, and knowing that now that the _world_ was paused, he had all the time he could have. "Menu." He tried.

 **Characters**

 **Items**

 **Status**

 **Options**

 **Relations**

And with that, a window opened showing off five buttons. He wondered if this wasn't voice activated, and thus, tried pressing on the 'Status' button.

 **Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 5**

 **HP: 276/276 MP: 110/110**

 **This unit can be leveled up.**

A window opened, showing off a picture of him. There were some empty spaces next and to the bottom of his window, but he didn't pay those any mind. Instead, he pressed on his picture.

 **Name: Emiya Shirou**

 **Class: Magus (3** **rd** **rate)**

 **Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)**

 **Level: 5**

 **HP: 276/276**

 **MP: 110/110**

 **STR: 8 (30)**

 **VIT: 10 (40)**

 **DEX: 7**

 **AGI: 7 (10)**

 **INT: 5**

 **WIS: 4**

 **LUK: N/A**

 **Status: ? (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill), Helpful (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain). Levelheaded (Allows the calm assessment of any kind of situation).**

 **Skills:**

 **Tracing – Active – 7 – An offshoot combination of the Structural Grasping) skill and the (Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.**

 **Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 40 – Passively grants perception, an ability that allows the user to understand the going's on around him and spot the tiniest details. Active: Grants the user the ability to delve deeper into an objects structure**

 **Cooking – Passive/Active – 55 – Passively grants a bonus to stats when cooking (+10% to all stats when cooking). Active: Grants the user the ability to make stat increasing food.**

 **Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40 – Grants the user an understanding of how most doohickeys and doo-dads work. Give the user an understanding of how to fix and/or upgrade certain items.**

 **Vigorous – Passive – Max – Due to the user's special body item, this user doesn't suffer from illnesses and has drastically increased health regeneration. Also, this unit doesn't suffer from age inhibitors like most others.**

 **Traits:**

 **? : This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3** **rd** **rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)**

 **Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)**

 **Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)**

He raised an eyebrow at his first Trait. It gave out more questions than it answered. And was the reason he was so calm about all this was because he had the levelheaded trait?

He also noted his class. Not that it annoyed him, but what did Class have to do with anything? Was it there for increasing his skills? Or what?

Well, no use just standing around here… not like it mattered since time was still stopped. He knew the basics of most RPGs, but what exactly did each stat do? Did they increase each other if given a set amount? Did they affect his overall health?

Damn it, if only there was a manual or something.

"Main menu." He said, and immediately, the status window disappeared only for it to be replaced with the previous menu window with the same five options.

 **Characters**

 **Items**

 **Status**

 **Options**

 **Relations**

He thought for a second. "Options." And again, the window disappeared only to be replaced with a new one. He had to remember that the windows could be activated by voice command, and also by pressing the buttons in the menus. All he had to do was pick the best one where he wouldn't look like an idiot if he needed to open one menu in public.

 **Sorry, you must first finish the tutorial before you can access the options menu.**

He blinked at the window that opened. Before the window suddenly closed and took him back to the main menu. Again, he felt his eye twitch. This was some messed up game.

"Items." He tried this time. And was immediately rewarded with another window opening, this time, without the need to finish the tutorial flashing in his face.

 **Emiya Shirou**

 **N/A**

 **N/A**

 **N/A**

He raised an eyebrow at the three other slots, and wondered why those didn't show up in the character menu. He shook his head, before he pressed the button with his name on it.

 **Emiya Shirou's inventory**

 **Homurahara uniform (Top): Equipped (+5 to vit)**

 **Homurahara uniform (Pants): Equipped (+5 to agi)**

 **Homurahara uniform (Jacket): Equipped (+5 to vit)**

 **Black (fake) leather shoes: Equipped (+5 to agi)**

 **Avalon: Equipped (Bonus skill: Vigorous)**

 **4000 yen**

 **Wallet**

Well, the only thing that stood out was Avalon. What was that? He pressed on the button for Avalon, and another window popped out.

 **Are you sure you want to unequip Avalon?**

 **Yes/No**

He blinked, before he pressed the yes button. Maybe if he got to see what it wa-

 **ERROR! Avalon cannot be unequipped.**

He suppressed the urge to run his hand down his face. Of course.

He swiped the window away, and reentered his inventory. He looked at it for one second, before he swiped it away as well. Well. That was another waste of time.

Oh well, at least he had some knowledge of how RPG's work. So he could guess what he needed to do.

He reentered his status screen, before he looked over his stats. Sure enough, there were plus and minus signs right next to them, with the minus signs grayed out. That meant he could distribute his stat points right now and not have to worry about it permanent without him confirming.

With that, he added the points to where he wanted them most.

 **HP: 276/276**

 **MP: 140/140**

 **STR: 10(30)**

 **VIT: 10 (40)**

 **DEX: 7**

 **AGI: 7 (10)**

 **INT: 8**

 **WIS: 4**

 **LUK: N/A**

Adding two points to STR and three to INT. Not really anything mind boggling, but if he had to guess, intelligence would help him with some of his magus training, and having a little bit more strength didn't hurt.

He also noticed that his MP increased by thirty. He wasn't a genius, but he did understand that it had increased because he had added 3 points into his INT stat. Hmm, so increasing INT increases MP. But what did WIS do then?

Now that that was out of the way, he had two more things to do. Taking another shot in the dark with what he was about to do, he spoke. "Skills menu."

Sure enough, he was rewarded with another window opening, this time, showcasing his skills and where he could put his skill point.

 **Tracing – Active – 7**

 **Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 40**

 **Cooking – Passive/Active – 55**

 **Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40**

 **Vigorous – Passive - Max**

Those were his current skills, but then there were three more; ones that were grayed out, and told him that they weren't part of his current skill set yet. He didn't really count Vigorous as his own, since it was part of the Avalon item.

 **Concentration – Passive**

 **Weapon's Expert – Passive**

 **Alteration – Active**

He was a little bit surprised Alteration was there. Since he could do that before all of this happened. He wondered if he could though, now that it was listed there.

Deciding that he had nothing to lose. He swiped the menu away, before he approached the sink. There, he went to grab the valve that would turn the tap on, but was forced to draw his hand away as he was shocked by something.

 **Error. You cannot interact with objects when the game is paused. To unpause game, go back to area where you paused, and say "Resume."**

Right, of course that was needed. What kind of game would allow you to move when the game was paused? That would be entirely too broken to be a finished product.

Well, he could rightly unpause the… game. He still hesitated to call it such, as this was real life, and whatever this was, it was either the work of a magus that was having entirely too much fun with him, or he really was living his life like it was a video game. He wondered though, on why this happened only in the morning, when he was in the bathroom and not when he woke up. Was there something in the bathroom that he missed? Something that triggered this?

Deciding to put that on the back of his mind again, he opened the menu once more. He navigated to the skills page, before he looked at each skill and wondered what they could do. Deciding to test out something, he pressed the Concentration skill tab.

 **Concentration – Passive – Max level 20 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly.**

Huh. Okay then, at first glance it looked great. What did the other skills do though?

 **Weapon's Expert – Passive – Max level 50 – This skill allows the user innate knowledge of how most weapons work. It gives the user bonus STR, AGI, and INT when wielding a weapon. This skill also allows the user to wield weapons as if they knew how to use them even if it were their first time holding one.**

 **Alteration – Active – Max level 100 – This skill allows the user to Alter objects from Gaia. Allowing them to recreate material to anything that is needed at the time. At higher levels, one can Alter objects in their immediate vicinity, including air.**

Well, both had their own merits, but Concentration seemed to be the best choice out of all three. He pressed on the plus sign next toe the Concentration skill, before pressing confirm. And then another window popped out.

 **Congratulations! You have learned the skill [Concentration]!**

 **Concentration – Passive – 1 - This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly. (+1% to base stats when concentrating on a task.)**

Well, he wasn't surprised to see that it was only a miniscule addition to stats. Not to mention that it only counted his base stats instead of his bonus ones. Well, at least now he had another skill to add to his repertoire… and at least he was owning this strange occurrence.

Though now that he thought about it, maybe he should have leveled up his [Tracing] skill more. Oh well, maybe the next level up he'd do that.

He went back to the status menu of himself, before he stared at the one remaining point he had yet to distribute. A trait point.

He didn't know what a trait was. But from his own traits, the [?] one that gave him a good amount of STR and VIT, then a Trait was most likely something that would really help him in the long run. More so than skills.

He had never encountered a game with a trait system before, not that he needed nor wanted to mind you, but he had played a fair share of the games Taiga had left in his house. Most of which were RPG's. He didn't spend an ungodly amount of time on them like Taiga did, but he did have knowledge on how most worked and what a typical RPG video game looked like.

Deciding to just bite the bullet, he pressed the traits button.

 **? - This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3rd rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)**

 **Helpful - This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)**

 **Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)**

Of course, it listed his own Traits first. He then clicked on the button below the new window that said 'Pick a new trait?'

 **Determined – This user is of having one purpose. This user will not let anything stop them if they set their mind on something. ([Concentration] skill turns into [Determination] skill. +8 to WIS)**

 **Heroic – This user is a very brave person. This user will stop at nothing to save people, even going so far as to give up themselves to try and save a total stranger. (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to luck.)**

Hmm, so there were only two traits he could pick? Not as much as skills, but then again, Traits did seem to be moderately more powerful than skills in this case. Still though, while the first one seemed good, the second one was just…

He pressed the button for the [Heroic] trait. He then confirmed, before another window popped out telling him he had learned the [Heroic] trait.

He hadn't really thought about it really, he wanted to be a hero. And that trait just seemed to be the best one to pick to get to that. In hindsight however, it was perhaps the better of the two choices. While the subtractions had caused him to have a -1 score on his WIS stat, the additions to his stats more than made up for it. Although this had made him adding the three points to his INT a moot point, but then again, his luck didn't have any number next to it, so it did lessen the impact of the cons.

And what exactly did self-worth mean? He still liked himself, so maybe it affected something else? Hmm. And the plus to reputation with the opposite sex wasn't something he was happy nor sad about. If anything, it was just there. He didn't care about being praised for doing the right thing such as helping someone, so it may as well have been useless to him.

Deciding to go over his stat page once more, he checked over his stats.

 **Name: Emiya Shirou**

 **Class: Mague (3** **rd** **rate)**

 **Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)**

 **Level: 5**

 **HP: 326/326**

 **MP: 90/90**

 **STR: 10 (35)**

 **VIT: 10 (45)**

 **DEX: 7**

 **AGI: 7 (15)**

 **INT: 8 (-5)**

 **WIS: 4 (-5)**

 **LUK: N/A (-5)**

 **Status: Status: ? (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill), Helpful (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain). Levelheaded (Allows the calm assessment of any kind of situation). Heroic (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to LUK).**

 **Skills:**

 **Tracing – Active – 7 – An offshoot combination of the Structural Grasping) skill and the (Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.**

 **Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 40 – Passively grants perception, an ability that allows the user to understand the going's on around him and spot the tiniest details. Active: Grants the user the ability to delve deeper into an objects structure**

 **Cooking – Passive/Active – 55 – Passively grants a bonus to stats when cooking (+10% to all stats when cooking). Active: Grants the user the ability to make stat increasing food.**

 **Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40 – Grants the user an understanding of how most doohickeys and doo-dads work. Give the user an understanding of how to fix and/or upgrade certain items.**

 **Vigorous – Passive – Max – Due to the user's special body item, this user doesn't suffer from illnesses and has drastically increased health regeneration. Also, this unit doesn't suffer from age inhibitors like most others.**

 **Concentration – Passive – 1 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly. (+1% to base stats when concentrating on a task.)**

 **Traits:**

 **? : This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3** **rd** **rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)**

 **Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)**

 **Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)**

 **Heroic – This user is a very brave person. This user will stop at nothing to save people, even going so far as to give up themselves to try and save a total stranger. (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to luck.)**

He noted that his health had increased by 50 points while his MP decreased by 50 points. He swiped the window away before he went back to the main menu. Deciding to just leave the relations page for later, he quickly said "Resume."

Immediately the world returned in full color. He could hear the bustling of the student's outside as they continued their lunch break. He let out a sigh as he approached the sink again, before he looked at the top of his head.

 **Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 5**

 **HP: 276/276 MP: 140/140**

Well, now he couldn't rightly say that his life was going to be boring now could he?

 **XxX**

 **A special skill has been created through a special act!**

 **You have gained the skill Archery (Kyudo)!**

 **Archery (Kyudo) – Passive/Active – 1 – Your arrow has already hit, thus, you need not worry about your shot. This skill grants the user increased perception and awareness when using a (Kyudo) bow. (Passively gives +2 to WIS and +2 to DEX per level up when a (Kyudo) bow is equipped, and +1 to WIS and +1 to DEX per level up when using any other bow. When active, grants the user +8% bonus stats when using any sort of bow, drains 5 MP per second active.)**

He had lost focus thanks to the sudden window popping out telling him that he had gained a new skill. And all he had done was aim and shoot.

Before he could ponder on the new skill however, he heard a whistle from behind him. He turned and was met by his club mate eyeing the shot he had made right over his shoulder. "Another bull's-eye. Keep that up and we're sure to win regionals this year."

He stepped to the side a bit to give him some space to look at the person that gave him an offhanded compliment. "You said that last year too you know." He said with a slight smile on his face. In return, the person he was talking too only blew him a raspberry.

"Oh bite me Emiya." Mitsuzuri Ayako said, a playful tone in her voice. He liked the woman, though she did have a habit of invading people's personal space, not just him, but many others. Some found it disturbing, while some endearing. He was part of the latter group.

"Still though." Ayako straightened herself before she looked over his shoulders again. No doubt looking at the shot he had made just a few seconds ago. "I've never once seen you miss a shot. It's kinda creepy, if it weren't so damn amazing that is."

He felt heat rise to his ears at the more direct compliment. "You know I've missed a shot." He countered, trying to stop Ayako from admiring something he really didn't need to think about to accomplish.

In response to his words, Ayako only gave him a blank stare. "Yeah," She nodded. "And I wasn't here to see it. I swear, if most of the club hadn't been here to see it, and if Matou hadn't been harping about how you were just like everyone else, I would never have believed you missed." She then adopted a rather sly grin. "So that's why I've been waiting for you to miss."

He smiled a little. You had to admire her directness. "Wanting me to fail are we? What happened to you wanting to win regionals?"

Ayako shrugged her shoulders. "Meh, a shot or two being missed would still give you a high enough score to carry us." Ayako replied, her tone coming off more playful than it was damning.

He shook his head at her. "Yeah, sure." He said dryly before he returned back to his position and notched another arrow. He took a breath, and focused. Concentrating on the shot, on the single purpose of hitting the target before it was released.

 **Through sheer unrelenting focus, your (Concentration) skill has gained 1 level!**

 **Through your intense concentration of making the shot, you have gained 1 WIS!**

 **Through your mastery of the bow, you have gained 1 DEX!**

He almost lost his focus at the window appearing, but managed to catch himself just in time to make the shot as accurate as he could. The arrow flew and embedded itself onto the target just like his previous ones, only this time; it was a tad to the left of the bulls-eye.

He let out the breath he was holding, and frowned as he stared at the target. He hadn't expected that he could level his skills when he used them. But maybe he should have expected that, his (Cooking skill) and (Structural Grasping) skill were at high levels, and he certainly hadn't put any points in them.

"When I said I wanted to see you miss, I didn't really mean it." He turned around and stared at Ayako. Who was now giving him a reproachful look. He just shrugged his shoulders, before turning back towards the range.

Still, he had to make sure of something. As quietly as he could, he muttered the word "Pause." Causing the world to turn gray. Once that was done, he put down the bow, before he opened the menu where he scrolled towards his status and checked his (Concentration) skill.

 **Concentration – Passive – 2 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly. (+2% to base stats when concentrating on a task.)**

He noted the changed level and the increased skill boost. And, while slight, gave him enough of an understanding to know that once he reached level 20 with that skill, he'd have at most +20% increase to his base stats.

Come to think of it, this skill was overpowered. If this were a game (he still had trouble thinking his life was turning into one), then most likely the skill could be considered overpowered and thus, broken. For example, if he had 100 to each stat, it would give him a bonus of 20 points to each. And while he had no idea of knowing if that was a lot or not, it was all moot. After all, his stats could be leveled by training as well.

Though that did raise another point. When he had been cooking, his (Cooking) skill hadn't increased in the slightest. No, prior to that, during his morning exercises, his stats hadn't increased. In fact, when he woke up, there was nothing out of the ordinary happening. He had just woken up, and did his morning routine. It wasn't until he got to the bathroom did things change.

He sighed as he rubbed his temples. Was his bathroom cursed or something? Damn it this was just getting annoying. He liked it better without having to worry about his life turning into a video game.

Sighing one more time, he swiped the window away, he'd get this figured out when he went home. After Sakura and Fuji-nee left, he'd have all night to figure out what was going on and how he could get rid of this… Did he want to get rid of it though? That was the question.

He shook his head before he got back into the position he was in before he paused, making sure everything was in order. He quickly said, "Resume."

The world returned in color, and the sounds of people chatting and arrows flying returned. He took one deep breath, before he looked down at the range and towards his target. Notching one arrow into the bow, he focused. Concentrating once more at the target, at the center that had already been hit in his mind.

He breathed out, and then released his shot. With a thunk! The arrow embedded itself in between his previous shots in the center.

 **Through repeated bull's-eyes, your Archery (Kyudo) skill has gained 1 level!**

 **Through your mastery of the bow, you have gained 1 DEX!**

He relaxed himself, before he turned back towards Ayako. Ayako, in turn, just gave him a half-smile and half-smirk.

"Making a fool out of me eh?" She grinned at him. "Never thought you had it in you to joke around like that! Kudos to you Emiya."

He just gave her an exasperated smile. "Not really," He tried to shrug off her enthusiasm. "I just lost focus for a second there." Although he told the truth to it, Ayako just continued to grin at him, obviously not believing him in the slightest.

 **Your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 12.5!**

"You keep telling yourself that ya show off." She said, half-teasingly and half-seriously. "Anyway, keep up the good work. It's kinda hard being the captain when you're a freshman. But hey, someone has to do the job."

"Why don't you ask Shinji for help then?" He asked, honestly confused as to why she wouldn't ask his friend for help.

Ayako let out a snort of derision. "Vice-captain he may be, but he's about as good a leader as a lemming." Then, as if remembering something, Ayako shook her head before she sighed. "No offense to your friend. But yeah, he's good at archery I'll give him that, but that doesn't mean he's any good as a leader if all he does is abuse the power granted to him."

He flinched a little at Ayako's words. He didn't disagree with them per se, but then again… "It's just the way he is." He shrugged. "I kind of got used to it in middle-school, plus he isn't exactly a bad guy. He's just… Shinji."

Ayako just gave him a blank stare. "Yeah, and Shinji is arrogant, spiteful, and wants others to fail and only him to succeed. Those traits aren't exactly good Emiya."

He shrugged again. "Shinji is Shinji." He began. "And whether or not he has good or bad traits, he's still my friend. So I'd appreciate it if we didn't talk about him like this behind his back."

 **Your loyalty to your friend is admirable and has garnered respect from your peers; your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 125 points! Your reputation level has changed from 'Neutral' to 'Friendly'.**

 **Your loyalty to your friend is admirable; your reputation with Matou Shinji has increased by 50 points!**

He raised an eyebrow at the window that popped out, before he looked back towards Ayako, who was now giving him a wide smile. "What?" He asked, slightly confused at what she was smiling about.

"You're a pretty stand-up guy Shirou." He raised an eyebrow at the name change, but otherwise didn't call her out on it. "Anyway, let's talk after club. It doesn't really make me a good captain if I just stand behind you all club time and not help the newbies around here." Ayako then gave him a cheery wave, before she turned and started to walk away from him and towards the other members of the club. "See ya later Shirou."

"Yeah, sure." He said at the retreating form of Ayako. He didn't know that he would impress Ayako with just defending Shinji, but otherwise, didn't really complain about it. He had known Ayako for a little over two years, having first met her during their time in the middle-school Kyudo team. In all the time he knew her though, she had never once called her Shirou. He wondered if that had anything to do with the reputation level increase.

 **A special trait has been unlocked!**

Oh for the love of-

 **You have gained the trait (Dense)!**

He felt his eyebrow start twitching; the game was trying to tell him something, he knew it was. He just didn't know what.

 **Dense – This user is a bit thick in the head. This unit's inability to read into other's emotions and feelings has left much to be desired about his interpersonal skills. (-5 to INT, -7 to WIS, +20 to VIT)**

He resisted the urge to put a hand to his face, not only did his WIS turn into a negative number again, but his INT had turned negative as well. Wait… did that mean his MP was now zero?

He looked up at his name, and breathed out a sigh of relief.

 **Emiya Shirou – Brownie – Level 5**

 **HP: 526/526 MP: 50/50**

He wasn't surprised to see his HP had increased by that amount, he had sort of guessed that VIT increased his overall health. But that wasn't what he had been looking at, his MP had remained at 50, despite his INT going below zero and turning into a negative number.

Still, this was getting out of hand. He needed to get home soon, because the sooner he got home, rested, fed Taiga, and then got to his workshop, the better. He didn't want to mess with this strange ability to distort the world and turn it into a video game that only he could see without it being at least on his turf… though that begged the question, if he got this at home, then what else was there?

Well, he'd figure it out eventually, right now though, he'd need to focus on just making sure no one figures out that he can see things in a gamer's perspective… for some reason though, he just couldn't stop feeling like a geek for thinking like that.

 **XxX**

 **Shirou's character sheet**

 **Name: Emiya Shirou**

 **Class: Magus (3rd rate)**

 **Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)**

 **HP: 526/526**

 **MP: 50/50**

 **STR: 10 (35)**

 **VIT: 10 (65)**

 **DEX: 7**

 **AGI: 7 (15)**

 **INT: 8 (-10)**

 **WIS: 4 (-10)**

 **LUK: N/A (-5)**

 **EXP to next level: 300**

 **Status: Status: ? (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill), Helpful (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain). Levelheaded (Allows the calm assessment of any kind of situation). Heroic (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to LUK).**

 **Skills:**

 **Tracing – Active – 7 – An offshoot combination of the Structural Grasping) skill and the (Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.**

 **Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 40 – Passively grants perception, an ability that allows the user to understand the going's on around him and spot the tiniest details. Active: Grants the user the ability to delve deeper into an objects structure**

 **Cooking – Passive/Active – 55 – Passively grants a bonus to stats when cooking (+10% to all stats when cooking). Active: Grants the user the ability to make stat increasing food.**

 **Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40 – Grants the user an understanding of how most doohickeys and doo-dads work. Give the user an understanding of how to fix and/or upgrade certain items.**

 **Vigorous (from Avalon) – Passive – Max – Due to the user's special body item, this user doesn't suffer from illnesses and has drastically increased health regeneration. Also, this unit doesn't suffer from age inhibitors like most others.**

 **Concentration – Passive – 2 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly. (+2% to base stats when concentrating on a task.)**

 **Archery (Kyudo) – Passive/Active – 1 – Your arrow has already hit, thus, you need not worry about your shot. This skill grants the user increased perception and awareness when using a (Kyudo) bow. (Passively gives +2 to WIS and +2 to DEX per level up when a (Kyudo) bow is equipped, and +1 to WIS and +1 to DEX per level up when using any other bow. When active, grants the user +8% bonus stats when using any sort of bow, drains 5 MP per second active.)**

 **Traits:**

 **? : This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3rd rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)**

 **Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)**

 **Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)**

 **Heroic – This user is a very brave person. This user will stop at nothing to save people, even going so far as to give up themselves to try and save a total stranger. (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to luck.)**

 **Dense – This user is a bit thick in the head. This unit's inability to read into other's emotions and feelings has left much to be desired about his interpersonal skills. (-5 to INT, -7 to WIS, +20 to VIT)**

 **XxX**

 **First overall chapter. I know there are some disparities with this and the manghwa, but bear in mind this. Shirou is a sword, that is who he is, and who he will ever be. He cannot have the gamer's passive traits like gamer's mind and gamer's body. Mostly because his mind and body are really just swords. So with that in mind, I had changed it to give him a more realistic feel to his skills and traits.**

 **For those of you who missed the hints, this fic takes place a year before the Grail War. Now keep in mind, that the Gamer ability is considerably overpowered, and thus, you can expect something that I'm rather not used to writing. An overpowered Shirou Emiya.**

 **Now keep in mind that while I myself am a very big fan of Shirou, I'm not going to start wanking him and making him one-shot Heracles. (Though with the Gamer ability, that may not be a far off dream), what I'm going to do is make Shirou earn his overpowered-ness through training. Or in gaming terms, grinding. That's right folks; Shirou's gotta grind some levels before he even has a shot at beating big boss characters like Servants. And since you all saw Sakura's level, you can get a pretty good estimate of just how high leveled Servants are.**

 **To put it simply, Sakura's level can be seen, while the Servants levels are "?" in the Gamerverse. What does the question mark mean? I'll get to that in the following chapters. And for those of you that know what it means and why does Sakura's level appear instead of the question mark, again, wait for the next few chapters.**

 **Gonna start cleaning up some pieces of this game, and then hopefully I have something that will flow neatly and without much trouble. It's going to be hard to remember all these traits and skills and stat levels, but don't worry, you only need to see his current levels, while I have to keep track of everything. So yey, harder work for me, but hopefully it pays off.**

 **Gonna post this on Beast's Lair as well, as soon as I finish editing it for the website that is. Formatting is a bitch ya know people?**

 **Lastly, for some odd reason, I'm feeling like Shirou or any other character that had appeared in this chapter was OOC. Would appreciate it if you guys can confirm this or not, it's just bothering me a little that I might have made someone so OOC that they're now an OC.**

 **I'm out, peace!**


	2. Let it begin

**Disclaimer: This is now a habit.**

 **Lawyer To- Fuck no, you're not coming back.**

 **Lawyer- Nope.**

 **Law- I own nothing!**

 **Going to clear this up for all the people that might think Shirou's ooc. Shirou Emiya is not a sexist. He just believes that men should protect the women and not the other way around. If he was sexist, he would be gallivanting around and saying women should stay in the kitchen while the men worked. Which in turn would result in him getting his skull caved in by Taiga.**

 **Seriously though, Shirou's been around women enough to know they can take care of themselves, but not long enough to know that women can protect men as much as men can protect women.**

 **And you know what a really fucking good feeling is? Getting a perfect grade in a test after you've studied for the entirety of a week. No multiple choice, only identifying what is being asked, and a bit of essays. Honestly, I'm on cloud nine. Call me a damn nerd, but god damn does it feel good to have all your work pay off.**

 **XxX**

"Trace, On." He inserted the hot rod into his spine, feeling his body begin to simmer as he created a magic circuit to power his magecraft.

 **New item created!**

 **Makeshift-Circuit (level 5) – Through your bastardized teachings, you have created a way to use prana without using your own latent Circuits. (Actively drains 5 HP per second. Actively gives a 50% bonus to your (Tracing) skill's experience growth.)**

Like clockwork, the message appeared again. This had been the fifth time it had appeared ever since he started his magecraft practice tonight. And each time the message popped up, the level on the (Makeshift-Circuit) increased by 1. However, there was no message to indicate he had leveled a skill.

He cleared his head, he couldn't get distracted. He needed to keep practicing.

"Analyzing basic structure," It was a rock. Uneven and rough, it looked like every other rock you see in every other place.

Yet to him, it was so much more. It wasn't really a rock, no. Closer analysis showed that it was a piece of concrete, shaped like a rock and uneven simply because it had been part of a building demolished just down the street.

It had gotten to his lawn because of simple physics. Dynamite hadn't been used, and the only other good alternative to bringing down a building was through sheer brute force. Thus, a wrecking ball had been used, and the wrecking ball had been a bit too good in its job as it destroyed a portion of the wall the concrete had been a part of, and it had flown upwards and over his own wall and landed in his yard.

 **Congratulations! Through delving into an objects inner structure, your (Structural Grasping) skill's level has increased by 1!**

 **Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 45 – Passively grants perception, an ability that allows the user to understand the going's on around him and spot the tiniest details. Active: Grants the user the ability to delve deeper into an objects structure**

He felt sweat begin to form on his forehead, before he clenched his teeth as the heat was becoming unbearable. The sweat had spread from his forehead to all over his body, but even then it wasn't cooling him down. His shirt and pants were drenched, and his body felt like it would catch on fire.

"Changing basic makeup," He pressed on nonetheless; he couldn't slack off, not if he wanted to be-

He felt the piece of rubble begin to heat as he inserted his prana into it, changing its makeup and reinforcing it with his prana. He felt it growing… finer, heavier, and then harder.

At this point, he felt his eyes start twitching, before his breaths began to get shallower and shallower. He guessed that if he opened his eyes, the piece of rubble would be glowing as well. Hopefully though, he di-

 **Congratulations! Through diligent training, your (Tracing) skill's level has increased by 1**

 **Tracing – Active – Level 10 – An offshoot combination of the Structural Grasping) skill and the (Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.**

 **Congratulations! Through persistence in your quest, a new skill has been formed!**

 **Reinforcement – Active – Level 1 – No, it does not make things harder. This skill allows you to transfer your prana into an object to better its molecular structure and 'Reinforce' its basic principles. (Actively drains 10 mana per minute for each (Reinforced) item you're using.)**

 **Congratulations! Through diligent training in your magecraft, your WIS increased by 1!**

 **Congratulations! Through diligent training in your magecraft, your INT increased by 1!**

 **Congratulations! By practicing your magecraft for the majority of the night, you have gained the trait (Uneducated Practitioner) for the next 24 hours!**

 **Uneducated Practitioner – Trait – Practicing things you barely understand is a dangerous art, but danger and learning go hand in hand. (All your skills will have an increased 50% experience growth for the duration this trait is active.)**

And just like that, his concentration was gone and the rock grew unbearable hot.

He let it go with a yelp, before he felt it explode into a thousand pieces, all of which went everywhere. He opened his eyes, as he stared at the place where the piece of rubble should be, and sighed as he saw nothing but a black ring on the floor.

Damn it, he had to get used to those messages. But could you really blame him? Those things appeared in front of him, even when he had his eyes closed! How could he read something with his eyes closed and without him touching anything! It was just-

He took a breath to calm himself. Okay, complaining about the weirdness of the situation wouldn't help him. He needed to face reality and accept that this was his life now… no matter how weird and disconcerting it was to have messages appearing in front of him even with his eyes closed.

Shaking his head, he stood up and opened the menu with a wave of his hands. He navigated the subsequent windows, before he pressed his status screen.

 **Name: Emiya Shirou**

 **Class: Magus (3rd rate)**

 **Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)**

 **HP: 526/526**

 **MP: 50/50**

 **STR: 10 (35)**

 **VIT: 10 (65)**

 **DEX: 9**

 **AGI: 7 (15)**

 **INT: 9 (-10)**

 **WIS: 6 (-10)**

 **LUK: N/A (-5)**

 **EXP to next level: 300**

 **Skills:**

 **Tracing – Active – Level 10 – An offshoot combination of the (Structural Grasping) skill and the (Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.**

 **Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 45 – Passively grants perception, an ability that allows the user to understand the going's on around him and spot the tiniest details. Active: Grants the user the ability to delve deeper into an objects structure**

 **Reinforcement – Active – Level 1 – No, it does not make things harder. This skill allows you to transfer their prana into an object to better its molecular structure and 'Reinforce' its basic principles. (Actively drains 10 mana per minute for each (Reinforced) item you're using.)**

 **Traits:**

 **? : This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3rd rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)**

 **Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)**

 **Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)**

 **Heroic – This user is a very brave person. This user will stop at nothing to save people, even going so far as to give up themselves to try and save a total stranger. (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to luck.)**

 **Dense – This user is a bit thick in the head. This unit's inability to read into other's emotions and feelings has left much to be desired about his interpersonal skills. (-5 to INT, -7 to WIS, +20 to VIT)**

 **Uneducated Practitioner – Trait – 23:58:05 – Practicing things you barely understand is a dangerous art, but danger and learning go hand in hand. (All your skills will have an increased 50% experience growth for the duration this trait is active for the user.)**

Making sure to go over only on the basic things, he skimmed over his status screen. His eyes glancing past most of his skills and looking only at his traits and the three skills that had increased their levels for the night.

At least he had levels going for him, not that he cared, but still, it was nice to know he was making progress.

 **Item lost!**

 **Makeshift-Circuit (Level 5) has lost mana and is has now vanished!**

And once again, the circuit he created had fizzled and turned back into a regular nerve. It had happened the first time when he started practicing, and it kept happening every time he took a minute rest in between his trials of Reinforcing something.

He didn't care that it did. No, he wasn't at all worried that his circuits were dissipating. What _did_ worry him was the description the Makeshift-Circuit had.

What the heck did it mean by "Bastardized Teachings"? Kiritsugu had taught him this technique, and he would be damned to know that Kiritsugu was leading him astray when his first words to him about Magecraft were "To be a Magus is to walk with death."

He shook his head to clear his mind. No. Maybe the description was right, maybe Kiritsugu was wrong. But hell, Kiritsugu had been the only teacher he had, and he couldn't doubt himself now. Not when he was steadily gaining progress.

He sighed. He didn't trust the… game thing about its descriptions, but he trusted it to tell him he was making progress?

He needed sleep. He threw his hands behind his head, before he carefully lay down on the floor and closed his eyes. Just a few minutes of napping here, and then he's off to his bed. His workshop really helped him calm down some.

 **Gaming Magus**

 **XxX**

"Oi," He blinked as he heard someone rudely shout as he put a foot inside Homurhara Academy grounds.

"What?" He looked around, and saw no one. He scratched the back of his head, before he shook it. He was hearing things. Which was weird, since he clearly remembered eating breakfast with Taiga and Sakura this morning. Especially since the same quest about making breakfast yesterday had popped up. That was 50 experience points, and that meant he was 'this' much closer to leveling up.

And it was _still_ weird for him to think that way. Like his whole life was a game.

Sighing, he faced back towards the main grounds and kept walking. Whoever's voice that was; maybe it hadn't been meant for hi-

"I was talking to you!" He felt his left arm jerk as someone grabbed it and pulled him back. He felt his body spin, before it stopped in front of the person that had rudely caught his attention.

He blinked. "Mitsuzuri?" He spoke her name as if it was a question. Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say as her face scrunched up and her shoulders squared. He took an inadvertent step back, before his eyes flickered upwards.

 **Mitsuzuri Ayako – (upcoming) Star Archer – Level 16**

"What part of "Talk after club" did you not understand?" Ayako asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared up at him.

He was a pretty tall (for a regular Japanese teen) guy. But it somehow felt like it was Ayako that was looking down on him and not the other way around.

Still… "That it was a metaphor and you wanted to talk whenever?" What the heck, was he seriously going to die because he didn't talk to a girl when she said something he was meant to take literally?

For a few seconds, Ayako just glared at him, before she let out a huff of air and started laughing.

He blinked a few times, before he actually raised an eyebrow at the still giggling Ayako. "…you're messing with me." He said blankly, a bit of exasperation leaking from his voice.

Ayako raised a hand to him as she let out a few more giggles, before she calmed herself enough to answer. "Okay, I was expecting a lot of things, but you just blankly stating something literally weren't one of 'em." She said in between breaths, a grin on her face as she stared at him.

Despite his incredulity at the situation, he felt himself smiling. "You still scared me half to death though." He said truthfully. He wasn't about to lie about something like that, not when someone was smiling, despite it being at his expense. "Made me think you were really mad at me."

 **Your Reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 16.5 points!**

That reminded him he still had to open the relations window. Though he had an idea of what he would see there. Especially since there was a… relationship system in this ga – his life.

Damn it, his life was a game. How hard was it to accept that fact?

"Well, I was a bit miffed you didn't at least wait for me after club, but eh, kinda my fault. Was too ambiguous about it." Ayako said with a grin as she walked past him. He followed her, matching her stride as they approached the main building.

He raised an eyebrow at Ayako. "That was you being ambiguous? I would think it was rather blunt." He said. His question only caused Ayako to shrug her shoulders.

"Didn't exactly set a date y'know? And it was ambiguous because it never really said when we were going to talk, just after club." Ayako explained.

He had to concede to her point, it was really ambiguous and never really said when they were going to talk, and just that she was interested after club. "Well," He began as they approached the entrance to the main building. "We are talking, and it is still technically after club."

Ayako let out a laugh. "You're taking this too seriously. Is this the first time a girl showed interest in you Emiya?"

He tilted his head in confusion, before he shrugged. "Not really." Sakura came to mind. She wanted to be his friend ever since Shinji had come over and told her to look after him.

Not only Sakura, but also Taiga. But the less said about that the better.

She felt a hand clap his back, and stared at Ayako in confusion, who smiled at him in response. "Still pretty blunt aren't you? Relax a bit and don't take everything so literally. We're friends right?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah." He said as they finally approached the shoe lockers. "But I was serious. You're not the first girl that wanted to be my friend. Not the first person either. Just never really have time for friends outside of my free time." Every last thing he said was true. And while he wasn't popular, he still had friends and he doubted they didn't take an interest in him when they were the first ones to approach him. And while they were his friends, he didn't have much free time. From practicing his magecraft, to doing housework, schoolwork, and generally work around the neighborhood helping his neighbors, he pretty much had zero free time. The last few times he did have a reprieve, he spent it fixing up his house and all the things Taiga had left there through all the years. It was one of the reasons he had experience with RPG's he guessed. Taiga had left her old consoles there, and before he got to disassembling them, he spent a little time playing with software.

Not that he got far with them, since he hadn't the time to play those games at all. He spent a few hours, before he went ahead and disassembled those consoles.

Still, thinking about games, he had to wonder… "Do you play video games Mitsuzuri?" He didn't have anything to lose from asking, and it would help him a little finding someone (other than Taiga) that knew about RPG's and what to do in them.

Ayako gave him a confused look, before she shrugged her shoulders. "Kinda out of the blue question, but yeah. I play a bit. I have a console at home."

He perked a bit as he stopped in front of the set of lockers. Ayako copied his action and looked at him curiously. "Why?" She asked. "Are you some sort of closet otaku that likes to play video games all day long?"

He ignored the jest and shook his head. "Nah, I just… recently got a game that I've been having problems with." Half-truths. He couldn't lie for the life of him, but he could at least withhold information that wasn't important.

Like how his life had turned into a game. An RPG that he had no clue how it worked.

Ayako seemed to perk at his words. "New game you say? Which one was it?"

Crap, he didn't take into account that she was going to ask for a title. What the heck was he goin-

"Oi Emiya." A rather smooth voice spoke from behind him. He let out a slight breath of relief as he turned around and faced the owner.

"Yo Shinji." He greeted his friend with a slight smile and wave. Shinji mirrored the gesture, though with a touch more flare than needed.

"Was my sister at your house again?" Shinji's voice was a touch bit apprehensive, but he figured it was just worry for his sister.

"She came over with Ta- Fujimura-sensei. Don't worry Shinji she's fine. Fujimura-sensei called in a driver to take her to her school." He tried to reassure his friend that if he and Taiga was around, nothing would happen to Sakura, especially since well, no one messed with the Fujimura's in this town.

It only half-worked, as Shinji still looked apprehensive despite the slight smile appearing on his face. "You have to learn to take care of yourself Emiya. You can't just rely on my sister every day, what kind of man would you be?"

He shrugged his shoulders. Despite Shinji attempting to get under his skin, he didn't really care that women took care of him at home. "That would make me like any other man in the world. Even you're taken care of by your sister right?" He smiled at Shinji.

Shinji however, only shook his head. "I meant you live alone. What kind of man doesn't know how to take care of himself and lets women do housework when they live alone?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with that? Everyone has his or her place. It just so happened that Sakura and Fujimura-sensei like taking care of me at my home." He paused for a second, before he shook his head. "Besides, I take care of them too. Who do you think cooks?"

Shinji let out a laugh as he shook his head. "Seriously Emiya? Just when I thought you couldn't be less of a man you admit that you cook? You might as well be a woman. Yeesh, all that's left is for you to wear pink clothes and drink-" Shinji seemed to pale as his eyes darted to the person behind him.

"Oh," He stepped to the side to make sure Shinji saw Ayako. "Sorry Mitsuzuri, should have stepped aside to let Shinji greet you to." He recognized the smile Ayako was giving Shinji, and to be completely honest, he wasn't at all envious of his position.

"O-oi Emiya, y-you did-" Shinji began stuttering as he saw sweat begin to form on his forehead. But before Shinji could get out another word, Ayako stepped forward and clapped Shinji on the shoulder.

"No, no." Ayako's voice was cool. It was calm. Yet the underlying _rage_ there couldn't be missed even by the densest person. "You were saying something Matou. Please. _Go on._ "

The last part was Ayako daring Shinji to keep going.

 **Congratulations! Through understanding the situation and the feelings of those around you, the (Dense) trait has been updated!**

 **Dense (lesser) – This user is a bit thick in the head. But through understanding when to read a situation and how to interpret the situation, you've gained a bit of empathy. (-3 to INT, -5 to WIS, +16 to VIT)**

Erk, now he felt just a little bit guilty. He hadn't meant to use Shinji's personality to better his traits.

Still, that didn't mean he had to save him.

"Well, since you two look like you have something to discuss, I guess I'll go ahead." He excused himself as he directed Ayako with a small smile, and a mouthed 'you're on your own' to Shinji. Hey, he may like helping people, but if you got yourself into a situation, then he firmly believed in the saying 'Dig yourself out'.

Hopefully, Shinji wouldn't take it personally.

 **You left a friend in need. Your reputation with Matou Shinji has decreased by 15 points!**

 **You've let your friend get his just desserts! Your reputation with Homurahara Academy's student population has increased by 17 (21.25 for certain women) points!**

 **You've let your friend be unjustly persecuted! Your reputation with certain woman in the Academy has decreased by 15 points!**

Okay, what the heck was with that last one? Were there factions in these things? Some sort of hierarchy of students? Cause he sure as heck never noticed those damn things before, at least, not in his previous school.

 **Congratulations! Through understanding that you're no longer a middle-schooler, you've unlocked the (Faction) system.**

 **Note: This only applies to certain areas.**

Again, he felt his eye start twitching. Now he _really_ had to open the relations window.

"Oi Shirou!" He looked behind him, temporarily forgoing figuring out the weird system that was now his life. He mentally said an apology to Shinji as he saw Shinji's collar clutched into Ayako's hand as she kept shaking him.

The fact that she was addressing him while doing so should have disconcerted him, but hey, Shinji deserved it.

"Meet me after school. There's no club today, and I wanna hear the rest of your story. Y'know, about the game you were having trouble with." Ayako said with a small wave of her hand, before she refocused on Shinji.

He returned the wave with his own, before he disappeared behind a set of lockers. Crap. What was he going to say to Ayako? He couldn't outright lie to her, and just telling her about his… situation would probably land him in a looney bin, or worse. Have Clock Tower enforcers come in and destroy Fuyuki City.

Either way, both weren't prospects he wanted to have. So he had to think of something to say to Ayako or at least do something with her after school so that she wouldn't ask about it.

Well… actually, he had one option. But… no. He had the whole day to think about this, and that option would be his absolute last resort. There was no way he was going to-

The bell rang that signaled that he had a five minute period before he got to class. He sighed before he sped up his walking and made it towards his own shoe locker.

At least his mind was now preoccupied. He had to get to class on time.

 **Quest complete! Arrive to school on time!**

 **Reward: 60 experience points!**

 **Your reputation with Fujimura Taiga has increased by 16.25 points!**

 **Your reputation with Homurahara Academy has increased by 10 points!**

 **EXP needed for next level up: 190**

 **XxX**

 **Quest Alert!**

 **Quest: Help out!**

 **Your innate personality prevents you from just ignoring a cry for help. A group of students have come to you asking for help cleaning up the swimming pool. Help clean the pool to complete this quest.**

 **Completion reward: 150 EXP**

 **Increase reputation with Homurahara Academy's janitorial staff.**

 **Increase reputation with students in class 2-D**

 **Completion failure: 30 EXP**

 **Accept this quest?**

 **Yes/No**

Now that was new. He now had the option to deny the request? Huh, okay then. Not like he had much to do since classes are over for the day.

Quickly pressing the 'Yes' button, he nodded at the male student that had asked for his help. The student's face changed from desperate to incredulous in a heartbeat. "Really?" The student asked, confused.

He nodded his head. "You did ask right?" He asked the student, the student nodded his head. He shrugged his shoulder. "Well I'll do what I can." He couldn't really leave them alone like this.

He remembered that morning that Taiga had been complaining loudly that the janitorial staff in the school had been overworked lately, and had been forced to ask for students to help out with cleaning up some parts of the school. A few janitors would oversee some students as they helped, while the rest were to clean up the rest of the school. The student's would be given extra credit if they helped.

Thus, he wasn't surprised to see that the only ones that were helping were those that _knew_ they needed the extra credit.

"Thanks Emiya!" The student said with a bright smile. He was slightly taken aback by him knowing his name, but otherwise, shrugged his shoulders as he followed the student towards the pool.

"How many are you helping clean the pool?" He asked as they approached the pool. He could count maybe three students busy using the long strainers to pull out leaves and a few pieces of trash that happened upon the pool.

The student turned his head, but otherwise, kept walking. "Ehh, probably just four or five." The student shrugged his shoulder. "Can't blame us though, we're the bottom rung in class 2-D. We need as much extra credit as we can get."

Huh, so he wasn't wrong when he assumed that the students helping were people that had low grades. Still though… "Isn't it a bit early to be saying things like that?" He asked the student. "Err, oh yeah. I didn't catch your name." He couldn't keep calling him 'the student' now can he? Besides, he was also his senpai.

"The names Ryuji. But just call me Ryu. The others do." Ryu said with a slight shrug. "And we know our grades. We hang out with each other after all." A slight smile appeared on Ryu's face as if remembering something he was particularly fond of. "And besides, we already volunteered for 2-D. If we back out now, the others are gonna rip us apart. So really, you're not just helping me and my friends there, but you're also helping out 2-D."

He wondered how that worked, since the only people getting the extra credit would be the ones helping, but in the end, he just shrugged. It wasn't his job to think about that kind of stuff. He was asked to help and help he would do.

 **Through sheer focus, your (Concentration) skill has increased by 1 level!**

 **Through swiftly sifting through trash in the pool, your AGI has increased by 1!**

 **Quest Complete! Help out!**

 **Reward: 150 experience points!**

 **Your reputation with Homurahara Academy's janitorial staff has increased by 13 points!**

 **Your reputation with students from class 2-D has increased by 30 points!**

 **Your reputation level with students from class 2-D has changed from 'Neutral' to 'Friendly'!**

 **EXP needed for next level up: 40**

 **Your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has decreased by 13 points!**

Crap. That took longer than was needed. It also didn't help he had forgotten he had to meet with Ayako after classes were over.

Quickly stashing away the pool cleaning chemicals and strainer. He turned around and was about to make his way towards the entrance of the school, but was blocked by Ryu and his group of friends. All of which were smiling at him.

"Yo Emiya! We just wanted to thank you for helping us today!" Ryu then pushed something to his chest. He was surprised to see… a video game case?

 **You've received "Last Phantasm VII"!**

He blinked as he raised the video game case to his face. Unsure how he should react to it and how to react to the timely way it had appeared in his life. So with nothing to say, he could only stare at it, and then look at Ryu, who was smiling at him.

"Don't worry, it ain't porn." The sudden confession made his ears warm. "I brought it to school cause I was gonna sell it today. My old console broke down and I was looking for buyers for all my old games. I'm assuming you have the console, since well. The Tiger looks after you right?"

He resisted the urge to palm his face and instead nodded his head. How did they correlate Taiga being his guardian and him having a console? Did she really have that kind of reputation? "She's my official guardian yes." He confirmed, before he let out a sigh. "…And yeah. Her old consoles are still lying around my house somewhere. I tinkered with a few of them, but I can probably piece them back together if I really needed to." That wasn't a lie. Every single piece of machinery he had tinkered with, he knew how to reassemble and disassemble. It was part of his own mental training after all. He wouldn't stop doing something until he at least perfected it, and that translated to taking apart or putting together a lot of things.

One of Ryu's friends whistled. "That's a handy skill to have. We'll make sure the Student Prez knows about you. I can see him paying you if you can get some old equipment working again."

He smiled at the man. "I don't help to get paid. I just help to help." Had he been younger or less set about his ways, those words would have embarrassed him. But as of now, it was simply him stating the truth. It was the reason he was here and not with Ayako anyway.

Speaking of… "And I really should get going. I forgot I had to meet someone after school, and I can tell she's going to be pissed at me if I keep her waiting anymore." He bowed a little in respect to his seniors, before he turned and started to walk towards the school building. Making sure to grab his backpack as he did so.

"Oi Emiya!" He turned around as he heard Ryu call his name. Ryu gave him a smile, while the rest of his friends waved at him and grinned. "If we ever need a hand, we'll call! Just make sure you don't miss any dates!" Ryu teased as he raised a hand and joined his friends in waving.

He shook his head, before he turned around and made his way towards the entrance of the school building. He could feel a smile appearing on his face.

It felt so good to help people and see them smile.

 **XxX**

Ayako stared at him from across the table, her arms crossed and her face a picture of suspicion.

He felt sweat begin to form on his forehead, but otherwise, kept a cool façade as he simply smiled at her and took small sips of the iced tea in front of him. The piece of chiffon cake that came with it wasn't touched at all. He simply didn't like it and would take it to go. Maybe Sakura or Taiga would want it.

"So…" Ayako began, uncrossed her arms as she leaned forward and stared into his eyes. "You didn't think you'd at least _inform_ the person you had plans with before you do something else?"

He scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Err… That was my bad. But yeah, it does sorta come out that way doesn't it?" He said nervously, never taking his eyes away from Ayako's. It may have scared him, but hey, you reap what you sow. And in this case, he forgot he had plans and made someone wait. In his opinion, Ayako was completely entitled to be a little cross with him.

"And what?" Ayako began again, her tone suggesting annoyance. "You've got nothing to say except you forgot and that you're sorry? Not even going to defend yourself?"

His nervous smile turned into a frown. "Well, no." He admitted. His answer seemed to have surprised Ayako, but otherwise, he paid it no mind and kept talking. "I just thought it was the right thing to do at the time."

Ayako hummed as she stared at him. Which caused him discomfort as he shifted in his place. "What?" He finally asked when the discomfort was turning to disconcertment.

Ayako kept staring at him for another five seconds, before she sighed and shook her head. "You're not at all repentant are you?" She finally asked, actually surprising him at her question.

He thought for a second, before he shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah." He admitted. "If you're going to be angry at me, I'll take it. But I won't be sorry that I blew you off to help someone else. It's just the right thing to do."

A silence stretched that bordered on awkward as Ayako stared at him. He kept his eyes on Ayako and didn't look away. He was sorry that he made her angry, but he wasn't sorry that he blew her off just to help someone else. It just wouldn't be right with him if he was.

 **Your bluntness in admitting your convictions has impressed/annoyed your friend! Your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 12.5 points!**

 **Your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has decreased by 10 points!**

He had to blink at that. He idly wondered how he managed to keep impressing Ayako like that, but otherwise, didn't complain. If it meant she understood, then there was nothing to complain about anyway.

Finally, Ayako broke the silence as she sighed, before she directed a wan smile at him. "I have no idea whether to be exasperated, or impressed by you." She admitted.

He took that as a good compromise. "I have the distinct feeling you're feeling both either way." Wasn't a feeling. His… video game/life HUD told him that she was feeling exactly what she was saying.

"Well, anyway." Ayako began as she took her own glass of iced tea and drank. She gulped down her entire drink, before she put the glass down and let out a deep breath. After taking a second to compose herself, she began again. "About the video game you were mentioning this morning."

Well, he was expecting this, and thus, he had a practiced response to it. "That's the first thing you want to talk about? Video games?" He raised an eyebrow as he directed an amused look towards Ayako. He had to sell this. He had to sell this or else he'd be stuck in a loo- Well, not really. If worst comes to worst, he'd just pull out the game he was given by Ryu.

Somehow though, it felt like doing that would be _too_ convenient. Like… it was programmed – wait… didn't video game protagonists have some sort of luck that gave them items that conveniently solved puzzles every time one popped out?

Before he could fully comprehend the absurdity that was now his life, Ayako began talking again. "Well, what did you expect?" She asked, directed a grin at him. All her previous exasperation now gone from her face. "I won't be talking about Kyudo, since you got that down in spades. And as much as I want to replace Shinji as vice-prez. He's actually pretty good with handling the lower years. I mean, if he's not niggling them. No offense." Ayako raised a hand to him as if to stave off whatever annoyance he got from her words.

He just shrugged before he spoke. "Nah. Like I said before, Shinji is Shinji. More often than not, his mouth is faster than his thoughts, but he has a good head on his shoulders. Knows a lot about micromanaging." He then shook his head. "Doesn't really help him out that much though. I can't rightly defend a friend if he's got it coming to them."

Ayako let out a small whistle as she stared at him. "Dang Shirou, that's just cold." Ayako shook her head as she continued. "Never thought I'd hear the day Shirou 'I'll help you!' Emiya would just turn away someone that needs helping."

He raised an eyebrow at Ayako's choice of nickname, but otherwise, paid it no mind. "You reap what you sow. Not that I'm saying that I won't help, but if you made the situation to what it was, I think you should be the one that tries to fix it." He took a sip of his iced tea, before he continued. "And for the record, helping people isn't wrong."

 **Your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 12.5 points!**

Ayako raised both hands in the air as if surrendering. "Hey, I never said helping was wrong." Ayako then dropped her hands and shrugged her shoulders. "I just thought you'd be so naïve that you'd help people deal with every problem." Ayako then sighed as she shook her head again. "Still though, that way of thinking is just begging for you to get taken advantage of. Really manipulative people could, I don't know, guilt you into thinking it's your fault or something."

He shook his head, not bothering to say something in reply to Ayako's words. Instead, he steered the conversation back towards the original topic. "So, why are you so interested about the video game I mentioned?"

Ayako straightened herself before she spoke. "No reason really." He blinked at the sudden answer. "I just don't particular have any topic that we can discuss. After all, I know next to nothing about you except that you like helping people. What kind of friend would I be if I know only one thing about you?"

Huh. Well, he couldn't really fault that logic. Still though… "I'm not really a video game aficionado or anything like that. It's just that… this game is really weird and disconcerting for me. I was going to ask if you played any kind of RPG that was similar to it, but then I realized you probably haven't."

Ayako looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes as if scrutinizing him. "From the way you're talking about said game, can I safely assume it's an RPG?"

He nodded his head. "Yeah, I guess it is. But here's the thing though. It's not exactly like any RPG I've seen." He could list down the number of RPG's he's played on Taiga's console, and not a single one of those games were similar to what was playing out in his life.

Ayako raised an eyebrow at him, and didn't say anything. It took him a second to realize she was waiting for him to elaborate, before he sighed and kept talking. "Well, it's got a… system where the main character gets stats for doing random tasks. There are no monsters to get experience points from, and the quests are randomized each time you start a day." He listed down the weird things that he was happening in his life that wasn't part of any RPG he's seen. "And there's also the lack of a storyline. It's just… the game goes day by day without really, uhh, advancing a story or something."

Again, it was a bit surreal talking about his life in third-person like that, but if he didn't want to look like a crazy person, he'd have to keep secret that the RPG he was talking about was his life.

For a few seconds, Ayako didn't say anything. She kept her eyes forward and locked onto his face. Finally, Ayako broke the silence with a sigh. "I've actually heard games like that." She began. "No linear story, randomized quests. The only thing weird would be the lack of monsters, but I suppose it could mean that there are certain areas with monsters, and 'safe zones' where the main character can rest and recuperate."

"Really?" He asked, surprised that his weird life of an RPG was something he could study about.

Ayako nodded her head. "Yeah. They're called 'Sandbox RPG's'. Those kinds of things aren't linear. They're kind of like those choose your own adventure type of books. They don't follow a set path, and you can do whatever the heck you want. Not at all different from MMORPG's, but I'm assuming it doesn't need to be hooked up to the internet to play."

He nodded his head at the last part. "Yeah it's… offline." He guessed that was true? Maybe? He didn't know. Still though, it was surprising he had something to go on about finding out about his RPG life. "Sandbox?" He asked, gaining a nod from Ayako.

"Yeah. Basically it's just doing whatever you want, and then getting stronger as you do those kinds of things. Basically what life would be like if it was an RPG." Ayako finished.

He smiled nervously at the last part. She hit the nail right on the head with that one. "So… doing whatever I want? Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of it being an RPG? Aren't RPG's supposed to be about epic fights about saving the world or something?" Hmm… he didn't know if he preferred that actually. On the one hand his life would still be an RPG, on the other, it would give him a chance to be a hero.

Ayako hummed in thought. "Well, I don't know much. But the stuff I read about these kinds of games has a storyline too. It's just that it's more subjective to the main character than objective to the world."

He tilted his head in confusion. "Err, what?"

Ayako sighed. "Basically the main character _is_ the world. Everything else responds to the main character's goal and attitude." He watched as she then scratched the side of her head with a clear look of confusion. "Honestly though, I think those kinds of things are boring. No goal is set for you, and you sort of have to meander your way through boring menial tasks to get stronger."

He raised an eyebrow at Ayako's words. "You'd rather have someone tell you what to do?" He asked her. Why would she want that?

Ayako gave him a look between confusion and slight annoyance. "Uhh, no. Who would want that? I'm saying that it's boring because for all that it's worth; you're still bound by the writing and programming a couple of writers and programmers have set. It's a game, made by human minds, and while that in itself if a great feat, it's still bound by technology and creativity." Ayako then directed a cross look at him. "Honestly Shirou, it's a game. It's not like it's your life we're talking about here."

Erk… Well, technically… "Err, y-yeah. You're right. Ha." He let out a nervous chuckle, which earned him nothing but confused look from Ayako.

Before she could question it however, he made a show of looking at the clock right behind Ayako and mounted on the wall. Ayako followed his gaze, and then he spoke up. "It's this late already?" He didn't need to fake this. Honestly, he was surprised to see that he had spent so much time talking with Ayako, Taiga would already be at his house and waiting for him to feed her.

"Huh, what do you know?" Ayako said, before she looked over towards him and then look down at his leftover chiffon cake. "Are you gonna take that to go?" She asked him.

He nodded. "I don't like sweets that much. I'll just take it home with me and give it to whoever wants it." He pulled out his wallet, but was stopped as Ayako slammed down two-thousand yen on the table.

"Don't worry about paying. I've got it today, the next one though is on you." Ayako said with a grin, before she grabbed her bag and stood up. "Well, anyway. If you don't mind, I'll go ahead first. I actually forgot I have chores at home, and my dad'll have my head if I don't get them done today." With a wave of her hand, Ayako walked past him and out the door.

He watched as her as she did so, and he couldn't help but smile. She was still forceful in her habits, but it really didn't bother him. It would be nice to talk to her like this again… providing he makes no mention of video games anymore.

 **Your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 13.5 points!**

 **XxX**

 **Quest complete! Dinner for 3(5)!**

 **You have gained 50 experience points!**

 **Your reputation with Fujimura Taiga has increased by 14.5 points!**

 **Your reputation with Matou Sakura has increased by 14.5 points!**

 **Level up!**

 **Your level has increased to 7!**

 **Your HP increased by 40 points!**

 **Your MP increased by 10 points!**

 **You have gained 5 stat points!**

 **You have gained 1 skill point!**

 **You need another 600 exp to level up.**

Brushing the window away, he finished drying the last of the dishes, before he turned around and nodded his head. "It's about time you guys left right? It's getting late." He said as he spied the clock. It was already 8:30 and most of the town was winding down for the night since it was still in the middle of the week. Besides, Taiga may be immature sometimes, but she did know how to take care of her responsibilities.

"Oh!" Taiga exclaimed as she looked towards the clock herself. She started to get up, before she stretched and kept talking. "I guess we really should go. Come on Sakura, I'll walk you home."

Sakura, who was right next to him as she had done most of the washing, nodded her head as she wiped her hands on her apron. "Okay then Fujimura-sensei." Sakura then turned towards Shirou, and gave him a smile. "Thanks for the hospitality senpai."

He just shrugged his shoulders before he shook his head." It's no trouble Sakura. Just make sure your brother gets that bento I made for him. Hopefully he'll like it and won't tease me about my cooking." He said the last part as a joke, but honestly, the gesture was more for him. He didn't take pride in a lot of things, but cooking was something he really liked and wanted to do. He wasn't going to take an insult to his cooking sitting down.

Sakura nodded her head as she removed the apron and hung it on the hook by the wall. "I'll make sure nii-san gets it." A fire seemed to burn in Sakura's eyes as she spoke again. "And I'll make sure nii-san won't make fun of your cooking and he knows that your cooking is amazing!"

He smiled at Sakura's passionate reply, but it honestly made him nervous a little. So instead of replying with words, he just nodded at Sakura. He then turned towards Taiga, and then spoke up. "I'll walk you guys out."

He removed his own apron, before he moved towards the living room. He waited for both Sakura and Taiga to finish grabbing their stuff, before he walked them out of the house.

But as he was about to slide the door that led to the entrance of his house open, he saw a silhouette of a man on the door's frame. He idly wondered who left the main door open, before he wondered who would visit him this late.

"Who could that be?" He broke out of his thoughts as Taiga spoke up. He hadn't forgotten they were still here, but his mind was too occupied with thinking on who the owner of the shadow was that he didn't think how they would react. He saw Taiga walk past him and grab the sliding door's indent on the side.

"Hey, wait. Fuji-nee-" He called to stop Taiga from opening the door, but was too late as Taiga hastily slid it open.

He looked up.

He saw Taiga look up.

He heard Sakura let out a sound that could be constructed as a surprised yelp.

"Excuse me." He blinked as he registered how… deep the owner's voice was. Not only deep though, he seemed to have an accent that no pure Japanese person should have.

The tall man looked down at them, and though his eyes were hidden by his mop of unruly brown hair, he could still tell that the man was locking eyes with them. "Could you perhaps help me?"

Again, his eyes looked up, but instead of looking at the man, he looked at the space above the man that displayed a set of letters and numbers that only he could see.

 **Mysterious Stranger – Mysterious Stranger – Level 132**

So… his name was the same as his title? No, wait, never mind that. Why the hell was he that high of a level?

He was about to speak up, but then noticed something off about the man's form. He looked down towards the body, and realized that the off thing about what the man's form was the multiple wounds and gashes running across his body.

"You're hurt," He pointed out as he stepped forward. He inspected the wounds, and was surprised to see that they were all shallow and weren't really that life threatening. But still… "Come in, we'll help you."

But before the stranger could get his foot through the door, Taiga had shut it in his face. He blinked, before he registered that what Taiga had done was unbelievably rude. He turned an incredulous eye towards her, and only saw her respond with a look that asked him if he was crazy.

"What?" He broke eye contact first as he questioned why Taiga was giving him that look. Taiga's look turned into one of exasperation, before she pointed at the door, or more accurately, the shadow of the stranger that was still there.

"You do not help someone who has wounds, is bleeding, and looks like they came out of a horror movie when it's this late at night and is knocking on your door." Uncharacteristically, Taiga's voice was firm, but he was firm in his beliefs as well.

"He's hurt!" He pointed out. Suspicious or not, helping him would be the right thing to do, and the way Kiritsugu would go about this.

"Taiga let out a sigh, before she shook her head. "Shirou, as someone who was raised around Yakuza, I know for a fact that people that are injured, is bleeding, and this suspicious looking at this time of night have been, or is currently, in a fight that takes up guns, swords, or anything that can and will cause bodily harm." Taiga then crossed her arms. "And I will not have someone that has been in one of those fights in this house."

"You don't even know that!" He tried to argue, but it came out sounding like a whine. Honestly, she was right. But he couldn't, in his right state of mind, leave him out there hurt like that! Besides, he had stepped through the bounded field Kiritsugu placed and there hadn't been an alert on his side. If the really planned on killing or hurting anyone, that would have triggered it.

Not that he could say that to Taiga and Sakura without exposing the moonlit world to them.

He sighed, before he thought up a compromise. "If you're really that paranoid, you can leave while I take care of him." He was a bit miffed that Taiga couldn't trust him to protect her and Sakura, but if it eased her mind-

Taiga shook her head, interrupting his train of thought. "I said no." Taiga said petulantly. "I can protect myself, and I can protect Sakura. What I can't protect is your innate need to help people even if though they look suspicious and or probably looking to take advantage of you!"

This was getting nowhere. He was about to point out the pointlessness of this fight, when the third person in the group spoke up.

"Ah," Sakura began, prompting him and Taiga to look over towards the middle-schooler. Sakura seemed to shrink under the eyes that probably looked angry, but managed to compose herself enough to continue speaking. "I think Fujimura-sensei is right."

At Sakura's words, Taiga puffed out her chest and gave him an 'I told you so look.' But before he could argue, Sakura kept talking. "But I also think that leaving someone that hurt alone and not helping them is wrong." Sakura paused, before she shook her head. "No, it _is_ wrong. Even if we're not doctors, helping someone that hurt should be something anyone should do."

As quickly as Taiga puffed out her chest, she deflated just as fast. And even though he wanted to do the same thing, he knew it would be childish. So instead, he focused back on the topic. "Get him inside." He said to Taiga and Sakura. Before Taiga could protest his decision, he raised a hand, before he pointed his thumb over his shoulder and down towards the hall. "I'll go and get a bokken. If he tries anything, just shout, or flip him over you tig-" He was about to say Taiga's nickname out loud, but the sudden glare that Taiga directed at him, and the worried expression on Sakura's face told him to keep quiet.

"Uhh, anyway, I'll just… go." He turned around and immediately power-walked towards the dojo. He stopped for a second as he turned the corner, before he looked past it and saw Taiga inviting the man in, while Sakura went into the bathroom to get the first-aid kit. Letting out a sigh of relief that Taiga was at least willing to get the plan in motion, he made his way towards the dojo.

It took him thirty seconds, but once he got to the dojo and was about to take a step inside it, a message appeared.

 **You're about to enter a dungeon. Would you like to enter and fight?**

 **Yes/No**

He brushed the message away, making a mental note to check it out later. Now though, he needed to get the bokken before Taiga really put the injured man though the-

Kiritsugu's bounded field went off, and alarm bells rang through his head. Quickly sliding the door open, he grabbed the nearest wooden sword, before he closed his eyes and inserted a hot rod into his spine.

 **New item created!**

 **Makeshift-Circuit (level 5) – Through your bastardized teachings, you have created a way to use prana without using your own latent Circuits. (Actively drains 5 HP per second. Actively gives a 50% bonus to your (Tracing) skill's experience growth.)**

Again, the makeshift-circuit message appeared. He ignored it, before he channeled the prana from the circuit into the bokken.

 **New item created!**

 **Reinforced Bokken (Level 1) – Channeling the prana from your Circuit into the item created a stronger version of the item. Stronger than a normal bokken by a large amount. (When equipped, grants +8 to STR and AGI.)**

He then realized that thanks to him activating the (Reinforcement) skill, he was draining 10 points of points of energy per minute. Which meant he had a total of 5 minutes to do something with his currently Reinforced Bokken.

No wait… he had leveled up and had gotten a boost to his MP, also his (Dense) trait had lowered it's deductions,. That meant he had 8 minutes. Still not a good number.

He put the math behind him, before he darted out of the dojo and towards the living room.

He reached the living room in half the time it took him to walk towards the dojo, and when he got to the door, he slid it open before he raised the bokken over his head. He found the man, standing on top of Taiga's prone body, and charged.

He didn't even take two steps, before the man turned and punched his chest.

He barely registered he had been hit, before he felt all the momentum in his run abruptly disappear, before it switched directions and sent him flying out of the door he had come from.

He felt his back collide with the wall and felt his breath get taken away, he blinked a few times, before he heard approaching footsteps. He realized that the man was running towards him, and so rolled to the side just in time to see the man kick the wall where his chest had been. He watched as the cracked it, and then realized that the kick would have no doubt broken ribs and caused massive internal bleeding.

Clucking his teeth, he straightened himself before he took a ready stance. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth as he drew more prana from his **Makeshift-Circuit**. He focused the prana he drew into his body, making it stronger and better than normal. He felt his muscles tighten; his heart beat cleaner and purer blood, and his mind processing information faster than normal.

Normally, doing this wasn't the best idea. The normal human body could only do so much, and when you Reinforced it, everything went into a sort of overdrive. The heart would beat faster, risking a heart attack. The digestive system would work better and more efficiently, risking a loss of energy thanks to your body needing more food than normal. And while those things looked like something you can avoid, Kiritsugu had explained to him that Reinforcing your body would have amazing effects for a short time, before leaving you with the aftermath of doing so.

Not only that, but just… pouring Prana into your body was dangerous in of itself. It might make some vital systems of the body fail. Any sane magus wouldn't do this, but he wasn't a magus. He was a magic user. A magic user that had been using his nerves for years as a makeshift-circuit. He knew what his body could and couldn't handle, and this amount of prana was just fine.

He broke out of his thoughts as he focused. He glared at the man standing in front of him, and then looked up again.

 **Mysterious Stranger – Mysterious Stranger – Level 132**

And he was level 7. Well, at least now he knew he couldn't beat him in a straight up fight. Still though, he had seen Sakura for a brief second when he flew out of the door, and she had her eyes closed and was apparently knocked out. True, maybe this guy took her by surprise, but still, it told him one thing. Levels were more like a guideline of strength. They didn't mean that those higher level than you couldn't be beaten.

 **Quest Alert!**

He tried hard to blink as a quest message popped out.

 **Quest: The bigger they are…**

 **The harder they fall. Levels are guidelines of a person's strength, and that doesn't mean you should follow them. Your opponent is more than ten times your level, but will that stop you? Defeat the Mysterious Stranger and learn why he has attacked you and your family!**

 **Completion reward: 7500 EXP**

 **?**

 **?**

 **Completion failure: 1000 EXP**

 **Possible death to you and your family.**

Well, aside from the death part and the question marks, everything seemed to be in order.

Still, now he was even more motivated to complete this quest. He didn't care about the question marks, nor did he care about his own death. But he was not going to fail and get Taiga and Sakura killed.

With that said, he turned and ran down the hall. He faintly heard a call of "Wait, stop!" from the man, but it was ignored. He had no intention of letting the guy knock him out for falling for something so stupid.

He looked over his shoulder, and saw the man giving chase. And by giving chase, he meant the man running at him at full speed and quickly catching up to him. Crap. Even with his reinforced body, the man was still faster than him. And if he was faster than him, he was also probably stronger too.

Thinking quickly, he observed the hallway and spotted his open bedroom door. A thought popped into his head, before he dove into the open room and slid the door shut. He guessed he still had maybe three to five seconds to ready himself before the man burst through the thin paper that was the door.

He counted down as he stood up and took a ready stance. 5…4…

He charged forward as the man burst through the door. His Reinforced Bokken raised and prepared to strike the man on top of his head.

He smirked a little. Crude tactics worked sometimes.

With a thud! The bokken connected…. And promptly burst into a thousand pieces.

 **Item lost!**

 **The item (Reinforced Bokken) has lost durability and has now shattered!**

Well, crap.

"Guhk!" He felt the collar of his shirt being grabbed, before he felt himself being pulled hard and fast. He was over the man's shoulder in a heartbeat, before he was flung through the hole in his room's door and out the window in a shower of glass.

He felt his back collide against the ground, but it didn't stop. No, it continued and skid through the ground, kicking up dirt and debris as his body did so.

When he finally stopped, on his back and looking up at the stars, he managed to look at his HP and MP bar.

 **HP: 266/566**

 **MP: 39/80**

He was about to sit up, but a shadow streaking across the sky made him stop and stare. He then realized that shadow was coming down on him fast, and rolled away as the stranger landed and caved the ground he was just laying on.

Scrambling to his feet, he did a brief surroundings check to see if he could do anything to beat this guy.

To his left was the dojo. There he could probably procure another bokken, but the last one didn't last that long and apparently did nothing to the stranger as he was still here and not looking any worse for wear.

Behind him, was his initial target of his Workshop. Truthfully though, he had nothing there that could possibly help him. It was just a storage area that he used every night to practice his magecraft. He didn't have any Mystic Codes, and he doubted that he would be lucky enough to stumble upon one of Kiritsugu's and use it right. He also didn't want to risk it, since well, his luck stat was apparently 'not applicable'.

The stranger had now righted himself, and though the man's body was straight and lax, he could tell that the man was ready to jump any second.

"Why are you attacking me?" He tried to ask as he pondered on what he should do next. He watched as the man shake his head before answering.

"Not my first choice. I was supposed to knock out the inhabitants of this house and investigate." The stranger than sighed, before he scratched the back of his head in a show of surprising emotion. "The reports didn't say anything about a magus living here."

Report? Investigate? What the hell, was this guy part of the Clock Tower? No… wait…

"You're from the church?" Now that he got a closer look at the guy, the man's clothes looked like the uniforms Executor's wore. He hadn't seen one before, but Kiritsugu did a good job describing what they looked like.

The dark coat, the dark shirt, and the dark pants. Everything about this guy screamed that he worked for the church.

The stranger shook his head before he grabbed the sleeves of his dark coat and looked at them as if appraising it. "This old thing? Nah. I'm not really a fan of the church. I just sort of took this thing off an Executor." The man admitted.

He tensed, that meant the guy had killed before. But as he was about to call the stranger out, the guy held out a hand. "No, I did not kill the guy. I sort of just… loaned the thing when he helped me." The stranger shrugged. "It was battered and had holes in it anyway, not like the guy would use the thing anymore. Besides, Executor's clothes are lined with Kevlar, good body armor to have."

That he didn't know about. He idly wondered how heavy that coat and shirt are, but went back to thinking up a way of getting out of this situation. "…so if not the church, who then?"

He got it. Before, when he entered the dojo, it had said it was a dungeon. Maybe if he entered and activated the dungeon, he could do something… no, wait, that was a terrible plan. He had no idea what was _in_ the dungeon that would be spawned.

"For the Magus Association." He balked at the man's admittance of who he worked for. The man seemed to notice his reaction, and chuckled in response. "Don't look so surprised. You must have felt it too right?"

He blinked, all thoughts of the Magus Association being here was whitewashed as he digested the stranger's words. "Felt _what_ exactly?"

Now it was the stranger's turn to look confused. "The ley line? The big spike in mana that happened a few days ago?" The man explained, but it honestly made him even more confused.

"Err... yes?" Maybe? Did he feel some sort of disturbance a few days ago? Was there an earthquake? He couldn't really recall anything of the sort.

The stranger's eyes narrowed. However, it wasn't in a threatening way, instead, the man's eyes looked sort of exasperated and confused. "Are you really a magus?"

The question was blunt, and he realized that the look in the man's eyes was due to the result of him basically saying he wasn't that good a magus. He didn't know how to feel about that to be honest. On the one hand, the man didn't seem like he was going to attack with him asking questions like this. But on the other, he was basically telling him he sucked as a magus.

Still though, he didn't really have any pride in his magecraft. "I like to call myself a 'magic-user' more. I always sucked at using magecraft anyway." He admitted unabashedly.

The stranger stared for a second, before he let out a sigh and relaxed. His posture straightening and a hand scratching the back of his head. "Those reports are out of date then." The stranger said, before shaking his head. The stranger then turned back towards him, before he held up his hands in mock surrender. He said mock, because he just _knew_ the guy could react to anything that might happen, including him running/attacking. "Anyway, I'm not here for a fight. I'm just here to investigate. A couple of days ago, a big spike in mana here in Fuyuki City happened. I'm just going around and looking at the possible points where mana could have escaped into the air."

That made sense… still though; he remembered that every city had a Second Owner. "Why isn't the Second Owner doing anything about it then?" Usually, the Second Owner was the one that dealt with the dealings in the city under scrutiny. They were the ones that investigated any anomalies happening, and they were the ones that approved whether a magus could practice their magecraft in their town.

Which then reminded him that he had no such permission, and he was possibly facing an Enforcer from the Magus Association.

Fortunately for him, the stranger didn't seem to care, or probably didn't know he didn't have permission. "Well, the thing is. The Owner is sort of still a minor. Even for our standards." That meant something, and though it didn't exactly burn him with curiosity, he still wanted to find out what he meant by 'still a minor'. "So we asked her guardian instead to look over the stuff. Well, turns out he was feeling lazy, and asked for someone else to do it. Lo and behold, I'm here."

"That still doesn't explain why you knocked out my family." Really, if all the guy wanted was to look over the lines under his house, he could have disguised himself as an government worker doing a routine check for on select houses. Hell, if worst comes to worst, he could have actually disguised himself as an exterminator and checked to see if there were bugs! He didn't have to go through extremes to just get in here!

He had to admit though, if the stranger really had done those things, he would have fallen for it. Let it be known that he could think up plans and put them into action, but he was like a baby when it came to others' plans… well, not really a baby, but still someone gullible.

The stranger had the decency to look sheepish at his accusation. "Well, actually… I was sorta looking to lift some stuff from you as well." Wait, what?

He had to blink several times to register what the stranger had said, and when it finally did, he felt his eye twitch a little. "What kind of Enforcer are you?" He asked; his voice low as he stared at the stranger in front of him.

The stranger held up his hands as if in surrender. "I never said I was an Enforcer." The man defended himself. "Those guys are what you send when you _don't_ want people investigating. I'm part of the group the Magus Association sends before Enforcers are dispatched." The stranger paused, before he shook his head. "That is, if Enforcers are even dispatched. Honestly, the spike in mana wasn't really that big, it was just enough to cause some heads to look over this way. Normally, the Magus Association doesn't send anyone this far East, but then again, there are a lot of things the Association does that makes no sense at all."

That explained the slight accent then. The man wasn't from Japan, and was most likely sent from somewhere in Europe to investigate the mana spike… that he had no idea happened. "I never felt a spike." He admitted, and though he wasn't really the best magus that there was, he knew that he would have felt a spike if it happened.

The stranger sighed, and this time, he saw him really relax. "I just can't take your word for it, you know that." He did, there was no way the man was going to just let this go with just a few words from a magus as bad as him. "Tell you what though, let me sort through the area a bit. After I'm done, I'll fix up the stuff I broke, and even hypnotize those two girls you had with you into thinking they just fell asleep."

He thought about it for a second, before he let out a sigh and relaxed himself. He felt his hot body begin to cool, and the sweat stop simmering under his skin. He honestly thought he would have exhaled steam, but that would have been an exaggeration.

 **Item lost!**

 **The item (Makeshift-Circuit) has lost mana and is now lost!**

He then remembered that the Makeshift-Circuit was the one powering his body with Reinforcement, and now that it was gone, he really felt his body slow.

He felt the strain leave his body. He gazed up at his HP and MP bar, and cursed himself for being stupid.

 **HP: 137/566**

 **MP: 39/80**

He forgot that the (Makeshift-Circuit) drained his HP per second. That meant he had to watch how long he used that. Or better yet, find out what it meant when it said he had latent Circuits.

He felt Kiritsugu's bounded field settle, and realized that the stranger really had no intention of harming anyone anymore. He looked up towards the man, and realized that while the man was tall and had an accent, he was probably a few years older than him.

He stared for a few seconds, and finally sighed as he realized the quest was still ongoing. "You're not going to fight anymore?"

The stranger looked at him strangely, before nodded his head. "Got no reason to anyway. I never really wanted to fight you, and though I could have, there was no point since it's just extra work." The stranger looked around the yard for a few seconds, before deciding to just crouch down and inspect the ground. "Consider this your win. You actually managed to bonk me on the head with that sword of yours."

A bonk? He called him swinging a Reinforced wooden sword, with his Reinforced body, that hit the top of the head, a bonk?

 **Quest complete! The bigger they are…!**

 **You have gained 7500 experience points!**

 **You have gained the (Quick Thinker) trait!**

 **You have gained 5 skill points!**

 **Level up!**

 **Level up!**

 **Level up!**

 **Level up!**

 **Level up!**

 **Level up!**

 **Level up!**

 **Your HP increased by 285 points!**

 **Your MP increased by 70 points!**

 **You have gained 35 stat points!**

 **You have gained 7 skill points!**

 **You have gained 1 trait point!**

 **Through your usage of the (Reinforcement) skill in battle, it has gained 1 level!**

 **Through your usage of the (Reinforcement skill in battle using your body, it has gained 2 levels!**

 **Through intense focus during a battle, your (Concentration) skill has increased by 3 levels!**

 **Through your usage of the skill during battle, your (Tracing) skill has gained 2 levels!**

 **XxX**

 **Shirou Stat page**

 **Name: Emiya Shirou**

 **Class: Magus (3rd rate)**

 **Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)**

 **LVL: 14**

 **HP: 851/851**

 **MP: 130/130**

 **STR: 10 (35)**

 **VIT: 10 (61)**

 **DEX: 9**

 **AGI: 8 (25)**

 **INT: 9 (-7)**

 **WIS: 6 (+5)**

 **LUK: N/A (-5)**

 **EXP to next level: 1320**

 **Status: Status: ? (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill),**

 **Helpful (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain). Levelheaded (Allows the calm assessment of any kind of situation). Heroic (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to**

 **STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to LUK). Quick thinker (+10 to AGI, +10 to WIS)**

 **Skills:**

 **Tracing – Active – Level 12 – An offshoot combination of the Structural Grasping) skill and the**

 **(Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.**

 **Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 45 – Passively grants perception, an ability that allows the user to understand the going's on around him and spot the tiniest details. Active: Grants the user the ability to delve deeper into an objects structure**

 **Cooking – Passive/Active – 55 – Passively grants a bonus to stats when cooking (+10% to all stats when cooking). Active: Grants the user the ability to make stat increasing food.**

 **Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40 – Grants the user an understanding of how most doohickeys and doo-dads work. Give the user an understanding of how to fix and/or upgrade certain items.**

 **Vigorous (from Avalon) – Passive – Max – Due to the user's special body item, this user doesn't suffer from illnesses and has drastically increased health regeneration. Also, this unit doesn't suffer from age inhibitors like most others.**

 **Concentration – Passive – 6 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user a bonus in their stats whenever they allocate all attention to one task. Warning: Lower levels of this skill can be seen as hard-headedness and thus, can be detrimental if not used properly. (+6% to base stats when concentrating on a task.**

 **Archery (Kyudo) – Passive/Active – 1 – Your arrow has already hit, thus, you need not worry about your shot. This skill grants the user increased perception and awareness when using a (Kyudo) bow. (Passively gives +2 to WIS and +2 to DEX per level up when a (Kyudo) bow is equipped, and +1 to WIS and +1 to DEX per level up when using any other bow. When active, grants the user +8% bonus stats when using any sort of bow, drains 5 MP per second active.)**

 **Reinforcement – Active – Level 4 – No, it does not make things harder. This skill allows you to transfer your prana into an object to better its molecular structure and 'Reinforce' its basic principles. (Actively drains 10 prana per minute for each (Reinforced) item you're using.)**

 **Traits:**

 **? : This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3rd rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)**

 **Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)**

 **Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)**

 **Heroic – This user is a very brave person. This user will stop at nothing to save people, even going so far as to give up themselves to try and save a total stranger. (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to luck.)**

 **Dense – This user is a bit thick in the head. But through understanding when to read a situation and how to interpret the situation, you've gained a bit of empathy. (-3 to INT, -5 to WIS, +20 to VIT)**

 **Quick Thinker – This user thinks fast on their feet. This trait allows the user to make up plans on the spot and to act on those plans quickly. (+10 to AGI, +10 to WIS)**

 **XxX**

 **Jesus Christ, this took longer than I thought.**

 **Two reasons why it took longer though. 1, finals are (actually still** _ **is**_ **) a bitch. A lot of papers to submit, and most of them needing to have the APA format, since well, I'm a psych major.**

 **Second reason is because this story is hard to keep track of. I'm actually very tempted to just make shit up as I go with this, like I do my other stories to an extent. But with this, meticulous review of each section of the chapter is needed. Mostly because it's hard to keep track of all the levels and skill points and such when the fighting and grinding happens. Which is why I have an extra window for Windows Notepad always opened and being updated every time Shirou gains increasing points.**

 **Also, I keep forgetting to make Shirou un-equip his school uniform. So his AGI has always had +15 points. Next chapter, I'll see about changing his clothes.**

 **With that out of the way, I'll talk about plot. Now, since most of you guys are here, I'll assume you read the summary. Well, those aren't there just to attract people you know. There is truth in that summary, truth in the fact that there will be a lot of things happening all at the same time. Some stuff may look useless, but for the most part, they'll have roles to play. After all, a video game's core doesn't have the time for useless coding, and as such, everything needs to have a meaning.**

 **And also, after every chapter, I'll be posting Shirou's stat page at the bottom. It may look like a waste of space, but hey, at least you guys will be updated and no longer guessing.**

 **Lastly, a reviewer actually got the sort of gist of what I want to do with the gaming system. It's basically like Disgaea. Now for those of you that don't know this game, you can go dig a hole and bury yourself… I'm kidding. Basically, Disgaea has a system where the characters can reach level 9999, but sometimes are beaten by a well developed level 6000 character. Which I will be focusing on by the way. Levels are guidelines, it's how you** _ **exploit**_ **the game that makes you make a level 9999 secret boss look like a bitch when fighting your level 6000 Prinny god. And to those that got the reference, yes, I kill pringer X from Dark hero days with a prinny. Suck it.**

 **C.O.Y.L out, peace!**


	3. Relationship

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **There's a reason I have Aoko as my DP. That reason is because I like that picture of her, and I like her in general.**

 **My DP and what I write have absolutely no correlation to each other. It just so happens that I like Aoko as a character, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna start writing about her.**

 **And it'd be weird if she was a given a gaming power. Seeing as she's been alive since the 1980's and that most RPG's with this kind of system haven't been made yet. If we're going to talk about liking characters and making a gamer fic about them though, then it'd make more sense to have El-Melloi II to have the Gamer ability. But I digress; my DP and what I write aren't correlated to each other in any way.**

 **Hey, I like mangos, but that doesn't mean I can't eat bananas everyday right?**

 **Also, Lunatic+ mode for FE:A is driving me nuts. I can't get past the first map cause the boss thief almost** _ **always**_ **has Luna+… And it triggers** **every time** **.**

 **On that same note though, Lunatic mode is easy now because I managed to max out my Avatar and Cordelia's stats, and now both Morgan and Severa have Ignis and Galeforce. Not to mention that I had apparently made an anti-tome and anti-bow Cordelia, and well, I have an army that consists of a family of four.  
**

 **Next I'm gonna try Lucina and my Avatar and see what the hell kind of stats I get for Morgan. Remember, FE:A isn't about having the best wife, it's about breeding super soldiers. At least, in Lunatic and Lunatic+.**

 **XxX**

Turns out, the Stranger wasn't joking when he said he would take care of everything.

Not only had he cleaned up the broken pieces of glass that was his window after he was thrown through it, but he had also managed to hypnotize both Sakura and Taiga, telling them that they had fallen asleep and wouldn't remember anything weird happening last night.

The impressive thing was, they were both asleep when he did hypnotize them. He had no idea how hypnotism works, as Kiritsugu was weak in that respect as well and hadn't taught anything but the basics of how it worked, but he didn't need to be a good magus to know that hypnotizing anyone while asleep not only takes skill, but thorough knowledge of hypnotism.

He idly wondered how he didn't sense this guy was strange. The Stranger smelled like… sweat. Not the typical kind of sweat, but the one that seemed to accumulate over time. It wasn't particularly strong, but it was noticeable now that he had calmed down. Not to mention the fact that the smell had multiple odors to it.

He chalked that up to just him seeing someone that might need his help.

So, with both Taiga and Sakura asleep in his guest bedroom, everything cleaned and unsuspecting, he sat by his living room table. Across from him, the Mysterious Stranger was sipping a cup of tea.

"This doesn't taste that good," The Stranger commented as he put down the teacup. The Stranger then crossed his arms over his chest, before he hummed. "If you had some brown sugar and a bit of honey, it'd be perfect."

He felt his eye twitch. Was this guy for real?

"Out of both," He said blankly. It was true anyway, he didn't have brown sugar, and he didn't really buy any honey. Too sweet for his tastes.

The Stranger seemed to deflate at his answer, before the man sighed. "Oh well." The man took the cup of tea, before putting it to his mouth and sipping. He checked the man over, noticing the man's eyes were closed, before he looked up at the man's status bars.

 **Mysterious Stranger – Mysterious Stranger – Level 132**

Still at least 9 times his level. He wondered if his life would be all about fighting people higher leveled than him, but then realized that maybe Ayako was right. The world was bending to his life, or at least, trying to.

He just wished it bent more in favor of him, and not against him.

"You've been stealing glances above my head for awhile." His eyes darted down and met with the Stranger's own. The Stranger had a look of curiosity on his face, before it was changed to that of amusement. "Don't tell me you have some sort of mystic eyes that can give you a good look of how strong I am." The man's voice held humor, but to him, it was surprisingly close to what he really was seeing.

He fought hard to keep his face neutral, before he made to change the subject. "About that spike you were talking about…" He said, trailing off as he waited for the Stranger to continue for him.

The Stranger straightened himself, before letting out a slight cough into his closed fist. "Straight to business then," The Stranger began. "As you know, I was sent here by the Magus Association to look over an Anomaly that happened with the ley lines in this town." The Stranger explained. He nodded his head in confirmation.

"You said that it was because of a spike in mana?" He asked. Still confused as to why a sudden spike of mana had gone over his head.

The Stranger nodded his head. "A few days ago, there was a sudden spike in mana in Eastern Berlin." The Stranger began, his eyes closed as he told his story. "It wasn't strong enough to warrant any kind of investigation there since it was generally just a small spike."

"What does Berlin have to do with the spike here though?" He asked, interrupting the Stranger before he got too into his story.

The Stranger sighed, before he continued. "Ley lines are like veins," The Stranger explained. "Every single one is interconnected in the Earth in one convergence point. That convergence point may or may not be the Akashaic records, that is, the Root." The Stranger than gave him a look that bordered on slightly exasperated. "Honestly, even someone who just practices Magecraft for practical uses should know this."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Not interested in the Root." He spoke plainly. "Infinite power or not, that kind of thing isn't something that a normal human being should have."

The Stranger gave him a look, before shaking his head. "Anyway, since the ley lines are all interconnected somewhat, there's a chance that a small spike in one area of the world can cause disastrous effects on the other side. In this case, that small spike in Berlin might have affected something or someone in this town."

He felt a scowl appear on his face. "How are Eastern Berlin ley lines connected to Fuyuki city? I mean, isn't that stretching it? Even if they are interconnected?" There were hundreds of miles between Japan and Germany. Not to mention the fact that those ley lines the Stranger was talking about would be under the sea, probably hundreds of kilometers deep.

How does a small mana spike in Germany constitute to a bigger spike happening here?

"Ever heard of the term, Butterfly effect?" The Stranger asked him. He felt his eyebrows furrow, before he nodded his head.

"The one where a butterfly flaps their wings on one side of the earth and it causes a typhoon on the other side?" He asked, the Stranger nodded. He nodded his own head in confirmation. "I thought that only applied to time travel though?"

"It normally would," The Stranger began. "But then, you have to realize, that everything is interconnected."

Again he felt his eyebrows furrow. The Stranger was looking at him expectantly, as if what he had said would be enough to explain why he was sent here to investigate.

For a few seconds, he thought hard, trying to think of a reason why the Stranger had said that. Everything was interconnected? Well, the ley lines probably were, but what did he mean by everything? Did he also mean humans-?

"Alaya." He paused, before it finally dawned on him. The consciousness of mankind. That was the reason everything was interconnected, at least, in terms of being human. So Alaya itself wasn't what drew everything together, no, there was another force, a much bigger one that connected everything. The one that came before Alaya. "Gaia?"

The Stranger nodded his head. "Right on both counts." The man confirmed. "Normally, when something like the spike a few days ago happened, it doesn't just happen in just one part of the world. There are spikes somewhere else. A spike in Antarctica for example, could cause a spike in Honolulu, Hawaii if it was the right ley line. And it just so happens that the ley line in Germany was connected here." The Stranger shook his head. "It's all a moot point anyway. There wasn't any kind of effect that was visible, and no one seemed to notice. Not even the Second Owner and her guardian. The spike was probably just a small scale one, easy to overlook or ignore."

A lull in the conversation soon happened. With him going over the information given, and the Stranger drinking his tea. For a few seconds, nothing was said, until he looked up and asked. "So, normally, what would a spike do to someone? Does quantity matter?"

The Stranger put down his tea, before shrugging his shoulders. "Normally no. Quantity and quality of the mana that came from the spike can have differing effects." The Stranger paused, before he shook his head. "And a lot of things can happen to someone caught in a spike, for example; if the spike is particularly strong and there are enough people in the general vicinity; their consciousness and their body could meld together and form some eldritch abomination. If there's a building on top of where the spike happened, the building could topple or perhaps become some sort of 'haunted' place." The Stranger paused for a second, before he shrugged. "Or… if a person is particularly lucky, they might become the next true magic user." He tensed at the last one. No… it couldn't possibly-

"Then again, all those things have an astronomically small chance of happening. Someone or something would have to be at the right place at the right time, and the mana that surges through should at least be compatible enough so that it doesn't fry their innards. So yeah, buildings could topple; people and their minds and bodies could merge, generally, a lot of shit." He flinched a little at the crass way of saying things, but he couldn't really fault the man. He knew more about this than he did; at least, he thought he did.

 **You've acknowledged that you're not as qualified as some people! Your WIS increased by 1 point!**

Ignoring the message that popped up, he refocused his attention to the Stranger. Again, his eyes flicked upwards and he saw the man's status.

 **Mysterious Stranger – Mysterious Stranger – Level 132**

He then wondered if there was a way to check the man's stats, or at least, some of the skills the Stranger had.

He shook his head. No, now wasn't the right time to think of things like that. He had to focus on the now, particularly in him maybe probably being the next Sorcerer unless he got something that could explain what was happening to his life right now. He had to research this, he had to be meticulous, he had to be a Magus.

…This was probably going to end badly for him. He just _knew_ it.

"Anyway!" He looked up, and saw the Stranger begin standing. He noticed that the man pocketed something inside his tattered clothes, but didn't particularly pay it any mind as he stood up himself. "I'll be taking my leave. Nothing seems out of place here, well, save for the fact that there's an unregistered magus sitting around without the approval of the Second Owner."

He bucked a little as he finally stood up. Right, he forgot about that part.

Seeing his reaction however, the taller man merely laughed as he waved his hands. "Don't worry about it, as far as I'm concerned, there were no problems that were caused because of the spike, and the investigation went smoothly. No need to add more paperwork for me."

He let out a sigh of relief; he had probably found the most laid back person from the Magus Association. He wondered just how lucky he really was to have someone willing to overlook his 'squatting' so to speak.

"I'll be taking my leave." The Stranger said with a nod. "No need to show me out." He was about to say it was the least he could do, but thought better of it. Instead, he nodded his head, and sat back down.

As the Stranger walked past him, he finally noticed what exactly was missing from the table, and probably what the Stranger had pocketed. It was… strange to say the least, but he let out a resigned sigh. "…Just don't take anything too big." He called out as he heard the door slide open.

"No promises." Was the Stranger's immediate reply. He heard the door slide to a close, and wondered why exactly he took the teacup of all things. Then again, maybe most magi were this loose in the head.

 **You've acknowledged what Equivalent Exchange(?) is. Your WIS increased by 1 point!**

Again, for the umpteenth time in the span of two days, he felt his eyebrow twitch. Seriously?

 **Gaming Magus**

 **XxX**

"Pause." He spoke clearly as he sat in a bathroom stall in school. The world turned grey, and everything seemed to stop. He pulled down the menu, before quickly navigating to his status page.

 **Name: Emiya Shirou**

 **Class: Magus (3rd rate)**

 **Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)**

 **LVL: 14**

 **HP: 851/851**

 **MP: 130/130**

 **STR: 10 (35)**

 **VIT: 10 (61)**

 **DEX: 9**

 **AGI: 8 (25)**

 **INT: 9 (-7)**

 **WIS: 7 (+5)**

 **LUK: N/A (-5)**

 **EXP to next level: 1320**

 **Stat points unused: 35**

 **Skill points unused: 7**

 **Trait points unused: 1**

Nodding his head, he quickly got to work to distributing the points that he thought would do him good.

 **LVL: 14**

 **HP: 851/851**

 **MP: 240/240**

 **STR: 15 (35)**

 **VIT: 10 (61)**

 **DEX: 13**

 **AGI: 15 (25)**

 **INT: 20 (-7)**

 **WIS: 15 (+5)**

 **LUK: N/A (-5)**

 **EXP to next level: 1320**

 **Skill points unused: 7**

 **Trait points unused: 1**

There, pretty balanced… Well, at least he thought so. Adding 11 points to INT was a last second decision, but it did give him some more MP. Now he could use skills much more liberally, but it still bothered him that there was a set limit to what he can do with the time given to him.

With that said, he refrained from giving anything to his VIT stat, mostly because his Skills and Traits just boosted that to incredulity. But still… For some odd reason, the bonus VIT stats didn't increase his health, what did those bonus stats do then?

 **VIT (Vitality) – This stat increases your overall physical defense. Adding points to the main stat increases your total HP. Bonus stats are transferred over to your physical defense and HP regen in combat.**

 **HP per main VIT point – 10**

 **HP regen per second per bonus VIT point – 0.09**

 **Bonus physical defense per bonus VIT point – 1**

He blinked at the window that suddenly popped out. Before he put a hand to his nose and pinched the bridge of it. This was honestly getting ridiculous. Everything just seemed... to come up at strange times. It would have normally been fine even if they came up one at a time, but damn it this was getting ridiculous with the sudden appearances. It was like the game – his life – was evolving as each day went along.

Sighing one last time, he brushed the window closed, before he focused on the next part of distributing points. Namely skill points.

He quickly navigated through his skills, and put all the skills in the one area he thought would be the best way of getting better.

 **Tracing – Active – Level 19 – An offshoot combination of the (Structural Grasping) skill and the (Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.**

Adding all seven points to his (Tracing) skill, he nodded to himself before he confirmed the change.

His reasoning was simple. Tracing was the one magecraft he had created for himself. He used it in his everyday practice, and not only did it give him an understanding of items he normally wouldn't have, it also gave him a… schematic of what an item really is.

If he was going to figure out how his life got like this, he would need to become a better Magus. And to be a better Magus, he needed to understand things better. What better way to do that then leveling the only skill that allowed him to figure things out better?

That was his logic, and he honestly found no fault in that.

So, with stat and skill point allocation out of the way, he now had one trait point he needed to distribute. And honestly, he was now finding it hard _which_ trait he should pick at all.

 **Determination – This user is a Determined person. ((Concentration) skill turns into (Determination) skill, +8 WIS)**

Like before, the Determination Trait was still available, and he found it easier to hover his finger over it. Still, his eyes darted below, and wondered if he was making the right choice.

 **Observant – This user is an Observant person. (+50% EXP increase to (Tracing) and (Structural Grasping) skill. Unlocks the (Eyesight) skill tree.)**

And then the one below that.

 **Heroic (Greater) – This user is a courageous person. This user will stop at nothing to save people, even going so far as to give their life just for the chance for others to live their lives. (-75% to self-worth, +20% reputation gain, +10 to STR, +10 to VIT, +10 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to LCK.)**

That last one was just unfair. It gave a lot of positive things for the same negative things his (Heroic) trait gave. It was so good that he found his fingers going towards it.

He withheld from pressing however, as he dropped his hand and sighed. No, he shouldn't use the Trait point yet. At least, not until he thought this through.

Moving back through the menus, he finally came to a stop at the main one, with his finger hovering over the one menu he hadn't opened yet.

 **Relations**

With a deep breath, he pressed on the button, and was greeted with a rather simple menu.

 **Homurahara Academy – LVL 5 relationship – Helpful Student**

 **Fujimura Clan – LVL 16 relationship – "Zookeeper"**

 **Archery Club – LVL 2 relationship – Archer**

 **Others**

He blinked at the rather simplistic menu, before he realized that he could press on the three names and another window would pop out. Tentatively, he pressed on the 'Fujimura Clan' button.

 **Raiga Fujimura – LVL 11 relationship – Unofficial godchild**

 **Taiga Fujimura – LVL 65 relationship – Little bro/Great cook**

He let out a breath of exasperation at what it read about Taiga, before he moved on to the other names.

 **Hayama – LVL 7 relationship – Good kid**

 **Junpei – LVL 7 relationship – Good kid**

He knew who both were of course. Both Hayama and Junpei were the designated drivers of Taiga, and whenever she wanted a ride home, or if she deigned it was too dangerous to walk alone outside at night for Sakura, she would call on either one depending on who was working that day.

Either way, he knew them both. Not as well as Taiga, but he knew them.

Taking that aside though, he guessed that the titles listed after the relationship level were how they looked at him and how they saw him. It… told a lot about what others saw him as and how they reacted to him.

The rest of names below the two however, were names he did not recognize. But with the way they were listed, he sort of knew why they respected him.

 **Yukimura – LVL 5 relationship – Zookeeper**

 **Ryuuji – LVL 5 relationship – Zookeeper**

 **Gato – LVL 5 relationship – Zookeeper**

And so on and so forth. There were at least ten more names under Gato, and all of those names had the word Zookeeper next to them along with a level 5 relationship.

On a separate note, he wondered if Taiga was really a tiger after all.

With a flick of his wrist, he moved back to the previous menu that listed his school, the Fujimura clan, the Archery club, and the one option that was different, Others.

Deciding that he could spare one more look, he pressed on the Others list.

 **Sakura Matou – LVL 75 relationship – Honored senpai**

 **Taiga Fujimura – LVL 65 relationship – Little bro/Great cook**

 **Shinji Matou – LVL 45 relationship – Annoying friend**

 **Ayako Mitsuzuri – LVL 15 relationship – New friend**

 **Mysterious Stranger – LVL 1 relationship – Interesting stranger**

Huh, okay then. Aside from the facts that Taiga was listed again and the Mysterious Stranger being listed, he guessed the names listed in the 'Others' list were for people he was particularly close to.

Shaking his head at the absurdity of this, he closed the menu, leaving nothing but the grey bathroom stall he was sitting in. He guessed it was time to unpause the game then. He spent too much time wandering around the menus, and he still had to think of where to put his Trait point.

"Unpause." He spoke, and the world's color returned. He heard the sound of students in the hallway, and breathed out a sigh. Right, well, time to eat lunch he supposed. Maybe he'd have better luck thinking things through with a satisfied stomach.

 **XxX**

He watched as the arrow flew from the bow and land on target.

 **You're unwavering when facing a goal! Your (Concentration) skill level has increased by 1!**

 **You've hit successive bull's eyes one after another! Your DEX has increased by 3!**

 **The arrow has already hit, therefore, you need not worry about your shot. Your (Archery (Kyudo)) skill level has increased by 1!**

He inhaled sharply, before breathing out slowly. That had been his fifth bull's eye, and that had been when his skills and stats increased. He wondered if there was a certain criteria before a point is rewarded, but thought better than to think too much about it. Right now at least. He still had some more shots before he was satisfied with wh-

"Yo!" He turned his head towards the voice, and managed to catch the bottle of water coming right at his face.

 **You managed to avoid getting hit in the face! Your DEX has increased by 1!**

He ignored that as best he could, before he turned towards the person that threw the bottle in the first place. He raised an eyebrow at her in question, silently asking her if she had intended to hit his face.

Ayako's defense was a simple shrug. "Wasn't trying to actually. But it woulda been funny if you got hit." Ayako grinned as she added the last part hastily.

He just gave her a blank look, before he sighed and put went over towards the wall and put his bow down. He then twisted the bottle cap, and proceeded to drink the contents of the water bottle. Whether she intended to hit him or not, it was a nice thought to give him a bottle of water.

"Yeah," His eyes darted towards Ayako as she walked up to his side. "You looked like you were so concentrated getting those bull's eyes that I figured you'd want a drink."

He downed the last drops of water in the bottle, before he wiped the sweat off his eyebrows. He then turned towards Ayako, before he gave her an amused smile. "How exactly did you know I'd stop at five though? I could have still been concentrating."

This time, it was Ayako that gave him a dry look. "You had five arrows. You fired five. Doesn't take a genius to count Sherlock."

He felt his face flush a little. Err, right. He hadn't thought about that. Still though, "Sherlock was a detective, not a genius."

Ayako just shook her head. "A _genius_ detective that observed. Get your facts straight Watson."

He sensed there was some sort of joke in Ayako's words, but he didn't get it. So instead of defending himself, he pushed the offensive. "And why exactly were you observing me? Don't you have anything better to do then watch me get bull's eyes?"

Ayako rolled her eyes. "What? I can't look over my friend? Geez, you sound ungrateful to someone that gave you a bottle of water."

He gave her a half-smile, before he shrugged his shoulders. "Thanks for observing me. I feel safer knowing someone's looking at me."

That earned him a small punch on the shoulder. "I am not a stalker!" Ayako laughed.

He just shrugged his shoulders again. "Never said that." He said nonchalantly. Ayako's response was to punch his shoulder again. Harder this time.

 **Your relationship with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 17.5 points!**

A lull in the conversation, and they just stood there with smiles on their faces. Finally, he broke the silence. "So what's up?" Ayako approached him for a reason. Not that he expected her to have alternative reasons just to talk to him, but from previous conversations with her, he knew that Ayako wasn't someone that just went about small talk. Or at least, didn't enjoy small talk that much, the previous conversation notwithstanding.

Ayako gave him an amused look, before she gestured her thumb over her shoulder. He followed to what she was pointing at, and found that it was pointing towards the open break room. There, he saw one person seated and sipping a cup of tea.

It was Tohsaka Rin. A student that held the top spot for brightest mind of his middle school.

He didn't know her personally, but he certainly knew enough about her to recognize her on sight. Especially since, well, he sort of admired her demeanor.

He blinked in surprise, before he gave Ayako a confused look. "I'm not in trouble… right?" He asked tentatively.

Ayako blinked, before she shook her head. "Not really no. Well, if you count keeping her company while I go and make my rounds with the novices as trouble, then yeah, maybe you are."

It was his turn to blink. "Err, what?"

Ayako let out a laugh at his expense. "She's here for _me._ I've been keeping her company ever since she came to sit in and watch the club. But I can't just sit down and talk to a friend while the rest of the club works. I have to do my part after all."

"Oh…" That made sense. Still though, "Why me? Not that I'm saying no, but can't you ask Shin-" He stopped himself from finishing the sentence as Ayako gave him a glare.

"You don't expect me to put _that_ ," Ayako pointed towards one end of the dojo. He turned towards it, and saw Shinji giving instructions to a girl by putting his arms around her and giving her instructions with a bow by moving her hands. All in all, the instruction Shinji was giving was rather intimate… and not at all appropriate. "Next to her." Ayako finished. He turned back towards Ayako, and saw she was pointing her finger back towards Tohsaka, who was still sipping her tea quietly as she watched the club with roving eyes. Her eyes seemed to catch his, and she gave him a small smile and a slight wave.

For some reason, her smile and wave felt off.

He shook his head, before he let out a sigh. "I guess I can see your point." He admitted. Shinji… wouldn't really the best person to entertain anyone from the opposite gender. Well, unless they liked being flirted to and given unending empty praises. And though he didn't know her personally, he could probably guess Tohsaka wasn't someone that enjoyed that. After all, she was the number one student in middle school and probably their grade level in this school. She probably didn't need someone gallivanting around trying to woo her with her own accomplishments.

Ayako nodded her head. "Okay good, cause I'd hate to hit you on the head if you insisted on putting Shinji next to my friend." He wanted to defend his friend from the accusation, but really, there was no way of defending Shinji without sounding wrong.

He liked Shinji, he really did. But not everyone shared his sentiments.

"What? Not rising to your friend's defense this time?" Ayako asked him, her voice teasing. He let out a sigh, before shaking his head.

"Anything I say would be a lie. Shinji's my friend, but I can't defend him if what I say isn't true." He admitted. "Still… why haven't you asked Fujimura-sensei to watch over her?" A valid question, since Taiga was the moderator of the Kyudo club. How one so good in Kendo winds up being the moderator for the Kyudo club though, was lost to him.

"Been meaning to ask that myself." Ayako said before pausing. He raised an eyebrow at Ayako, before he gestured for her to keep going. Ayako however, just sighed. "Do you see her anywhere here?"

He took a look around the dojo, and as Ayako was alluding to, Taiga was nowhere to be seen. He had to resist palming his face. He wondered where exactly the moderator for the club was when club was ongoing. He wondered if the Stranger did something else to her mind that made her forget about club but come into school to teach her subject, but then realized that this was probably just one of those days where Taiga had something else to do.

"She asked me to open up the club today," He turned back to Ayako, who had confirmed his thoughts. "She said she had a meeting to attend to with the other teachers. Asked me to lock up as well. Would have said no, but I can't rightly have a free day for the members y'know? Bad practice and all that."

He shook his head at what Ayako said, of course. Not that he was disappointed mind you, but couldn't she have at least shown her face and said it to the club in person?

"Aaanyway, yeah. Keep Tohsaka company while I do my rounds." A teasing grin then appeared on Ayako's face. "Don't worry, she doesn't bite… much anyway." With those words, Ayako turned away from him and went over towards a club member fumbling as he tried to put the next arrow into the bow.

He let out a sigh. Not out of exasperation, but rather of resignation. He would have gone over to talk to her one way or another, especially since Ayako asked for his help. Still… he knew he wasn't much of a conversationalist. And for some reason, Tohsaka's earlier smile and wave put him on edge. There was just… something off about it he couldn't place his finger on.

Still, his friend asked for help, and help he would do.

He began to walk over towards the squared visitor's area where Tohsaka was seated. It really wasn't large and was just one place where people could sit down and take a break. There were some small lockers there to place anyone's belongings, and there was a coffee table right in the middle of it with a plant in a vase as a center piece. Tohsaka was seated to the side of it with a cup of tea in front of her.

As he reached the rest area, he put his bow down so that it leaned on the wall, before he went over towards the table and grabbed the teakettle. He raised the kettle until it was chest level, before he spoke. "Refill?"

Tohsaka gave him another odd smile, before she nodded her head and pushed her cup forward. He poured some more tea into her cup, before he placed the kettle down and moved the cup towards Tohsaka.

Tohsaka took the cup, before she raised it to her mouth and began to drink.

…

...

...

This lasted for three more sips, before he realized that Tohsaka wasn't probably going to initiate a conversation with him.

He opened his mouth to ask how she knew Ayako, but was cut-off as Tohsaka asked him a question instead. "How do you do it?"

He blinked. "Huh?" Was his reply.

Tohsaka let out a giggle, which again, sounded completely off. Before she clarified. "How do you manage to hit 5 bull's eyes one after another without looking anywhere else?"

Oh… so that was what she meant. "Err, I… don't really get distracted much. When I see something that I want to do, I sort of block out the world and work to accomplish my goal."

Tohsaka looked at him, her surprisingly light blue eyes almost assessing him. "Oh? That's a pretty good mindset to have." He flushed a little at the surprising praise. Hey, if a pretty girl – off smile and gestures notwithstanding – suddenly complimented you, you'd be embarrassed to.

"Still though," He shook his head as Tohsaka put a finger to the side of her cheek. "Isn't that also called having a one-track mind?"

Erk… She had a point.

"Well…" His eyes drifted upwards as he thought of what to say, and he froze at what he saw.

 **Tohsaka Rin – Tohsaka heir – LVL 128**

Wait… that can't be right.

"Are you alright?" He was broken out of his reverie as Tohsaka suddenly spoke. His eyes locked with hers, and he hastily avoided it.

"Err, yeah. I'm fine. Just… had a thought is all." He lied. He knew that Tohsaka wasn't convinced at all as her eyes were still on him, but thankfully, she didn't push it as she just decided to drink her tea.

Taking a few breaths, he decided he would at least do what Ayako had asked him to. "So, are you interested in Kyudo?" He asked, to which Tohsaka responded with a slight shrug.

"Not particularly no." She admitted as she put her tea down. She put a finger to her chin, before she continued. "Though I guess the mindset for Kyudo is particularly interesting. That is, believing in something before it actually happens."

Huh, small world. "That's exactly the reason why I took it up in the first place." He admitted with a slight smile. He hadn't thought people would like the Kyudo mindset. As it was particularly mind numbing and contradicting. Most of the people that joined this club really only wanted to hit a target with an arrow, not get the discipline needed to do so in the first place.

"That's very mature of you Emiya-kun." Tohsaka complimented with a smile. Normally, he would be a bit abashed by the praise, but as he got used to Tohsaka…

"Err, thanks I guess?" He rubbed the back of his head. Taking the compliment as a grain of salt. Again, he couldn't escape the feeling that there was something _off_ about Tohsaka and the way she spoke. "Not particularly praise-worthy though."

"And so humble too." Tohsaka batted her eyelashes at him, a smile on her face as she leaned forward. "You must be a good student as well."

This time, he openly scowled. "Not really." He said bluntly. He watched as Tohsaka blinked, before she straightened herself and give him a… he didn't know what to call that look. Confused? Calculated? "I'm fairly average in everything."

For a second, Tohsaka didn't say anything. And then another smile appeared on her face. "There's a difference between being humble and just being hard-headed you know."

He blinked at the underhanded insult. "And there's a difference between speaking your mind and just going with what's nice." He spoke without really thinking. Nonetheless, his words seemed to make Tohsaka recoil in surprise, but like before, she managed to cover it up fairly well before she responded.

"Oh? But isn't being polite the better man's way of dealing with things?" Was she implying he was less of man than she was?

"Shouldn't that be only applicable to men?" He countered, and this time, he saw Tohsaka's eyebrow twitch.

"I hope you're not implying what I think you're implying Emiya-kun…" Her voice was low, and for a second there, he thought he saw her arm move under the table as if grasping something.

He shook his head to clear it. "How do you even know my name? I never introduced myself to you." He asked. Not rudely, but rather as a means to point out something obvious.

His sudden question made Tohsaka blink in surprise, and her arm seemed to slack a little. She coughed, before she answered. "Ayako was generous enough to give your name when we were watching you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, still, I should introduce myself first." He said as his head the tiniest bit as a sign of respect to a fellow classmate. "Emiya Shirou, pleasure to meet you."

Tohsaka seemed slightly taken aback by his sudden introduction, before she bowed her head as well and introduced herself. "Tohsaka Rin, the feeling is mutual."

 **Your relationship with Tohsaka Rin has increased by 15.5 points!**

 **Your reputation level with Tohsaka Rin has changed from "Stranger" to "Acquaintance".**

He blinked, before his eyes involuntarily darted back up Tohsaka's head.

He shook his head as he just sighed, an act that was easily caught by Tohsaka. "What's wrong Emiya-kun? Regretting your earlier words already?" Tohsaka asked, a hint of a teasing tone in her voice that felt… natural to her.

He shook his head. "You're weird." He said blankly. His words caused Tohsaka to recoil, but before she could reply, another voice joined the conversation.

"From the looks of things, you should run before she can get her hands on you Shirou." He turned his head towards the voice, and saw Ayako walking up to them with a slight smile on her lips. "Geez, I asked you to keep her company, not piss her off."

He turned his eyes towards Tohsaka, and saw her giving a pleasant smile, no hint of animosity evident in her body language. He then turned back towards Ayako and shrugged. "Didn't think I was." Pissing her off, he left unsaid.

Ayako let out a small laugh. "Wow. I've been trying to get a rise out of both of you without success, and the minute you two are in the same room, you managed to show a bit of your real selves." Ayako teased, unabashed in admitting her actions against both of them. She approached the table, and saw down next to him and across Tohsaka. "Maybe both of you have some repressed sexual tension."

He turned to stare at Ayako. "No."

"No." Tohsaka's said at exactly the same time as him.

He blinked before he turned towards Tohsaka. She seemed to have the same thought as she locked eyes with him. After a few seconds of looking at each other, he let out a smile, which was mirrored by Tohsaka.

 **Your relationship with Tohsaka Rin has increased by 12.5 points!**

"And you can read each other's minds." Ayako teased as she gave both him and Tohsaka a big grin. He sighed before he shook his head at his friends' antics.

"You're looking too deep into this." He said as he stood up and made to move out of the rest area.

Well, tried to at least. Before he could take the first step, he was pulled back down by Ayako and was seated right next to her. "Hey- what?"

"Come sit down and talk. You've hit your quota for the day, and watching you two talk is just so darn entertaining." Ayako said with a big smile. He gave her a blank look, before he shook his head.

"How do you even know what my quota is?" He asked, slightly surprised that she figured out that his minimum quota was five shots. They hadn't really been talking about Kyudo since they first started talking to each other more, and he doubted that-

"Oh, that's a fairly easy question to answer." He looked up towards Tohsaka, and found that she was sporting another _not_ weird smile. Problem was though, it didn't exactly make him more comfortable.

"Oi, Rin-" Ayako spoke, but was interrupted as Tohsaka spoke over her.

"She's a really good captain and knows each club member's style." He stared blankly at Tohsaka. Who in turn, just gave him a bright smile in return. "She's been watching every member and she knows what each member's style is."

He didn't buy it, not one bit.

Still though, he guessed he could play along. At least, for Ayako's sake. "Huh, I didn't know you took to being captain so seriously Mitsuzuri." He looked towards Ayako, who seemed both relieved and disbelieving at the same time.

"Err, y-yeah. Right!" Ayako nodded her head, a flush on her face as she did so. "A captain's work isn't just to lead the team to victory! They need to make sure everyone can get to that victory!"

 **Your relationship with Tohsaka Rin has increased by 35 points!**

 **Your relationship with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 25.5 points!**

For odd reason though, he just pictured Ayako as a younger Taiga… no wait. It was the opposite, Ayako was a more mature Taiga. Yeah, that was it.

"Yeah, uh huh." He turned towards Tohsaka, and saw her giving Ayako a lopsided smile. "A captain's work is to observe _each_ member."

For some odd reason, he felt he knew what they were talking about, but decided to just lock it in the back of his head. He didn't need to know, thus, he didn't want to know.

"A-anyway!" Ayako suddenly spoke, interrupting his train of thought. He looked over towards her, and she coughed into her hand to regain her composure. "I was actually planning on going to the mall today. I was thinking that since you two aren't busy-"

"What makes you think I'm not busy?" He asked, interrupting Ayako before she could continue.

Surprisingly, he heard Tohsaka agree with him. "Yeah, and me too? Aren't you assuming a little bit too much for both of us?" Tohsaka reasoned as she looked towards Ayako.

Ayako however, was unfazed by both of their looks. She turned towards Tohsaka first. "You always head home when you have nothing else to do after school." Ayako said, making Tohsaka's ears flush red before Tohsaka looked away with a sheepish look on her face.

"And you," He turned towards Ayako, who was pointing a finger at him rather accusingly. "Don't have anything to do except look for people that want your help." He had the decency to be embarrassed as he scratched the back of his neck. Well… She wasn't exactly wrong…

"Still, what makes you think I want to go?" He asked, honestly not seeing the point of Ayako dragging him shopping.

 **Only slightly less dense, but still dense. Your relationship with Mitsuzuri Ayako has decreased by 30 points!**

Ayako sighed before she palmed her face. "Geez, I thought you were getting better, but then you go and say that."

He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "Did I miss something here?" He asked, not really understanding how his relationship with Ayako could take a hit like that.

"I believe the term you're looking for Emiya-kun is 'Hang out'." He turned towards Tohsaka, who was again, giving him that strange weird smile. "Is the concept so alien to you I wonder?" Tohsaka's tone was teasing, and yet, he could detect a hint of… realness to it as well.

Still… "I'm not going to take that from someone that just goes straight home everyday." He said blankly as he stared at Tohsaka.

Tohsaka in turn, was slightly taken aback by his words, but managed to reign in her surprise (and possibly annoyance) by coughing and shaking her head. "Nonetheless, Ayako is inviting both of us to accompany her. It would be rude to refuse anymore after we have thoroughly asked her reasons for doing so."

He blinked at the rather… prim response Tohsaka gave. Before he sighed, seeing that she was right. "Well, okay then. I'll come." He said tentatively, not sure how he should take this surprise plan.

Ayako grinned at him before she nodded her head. "Then it's settled, we go to the mall in Fuyuki today." Ayako then gave him a strange look that was half-teasing and half-disbelieving. "Wow, it took a lot of convincing for you to go on a date with two girls. Maybe you…" Ayako didn't finish her sentence, but swung an imaginary baseball bat opposite she was facing.

The message was clear.

He stood up and felt his face flush. "I'm not- I don't- I like women!" He blurted out, flustered at being silently called gay.

It was then he realized, that he had screamed his defense for the entire club to hear.

He looked up, and saw people staring at him, some men were giving him thumbs up, while others were shaking their heads. The same could be said with the women, but instead of thumbs ups, he was given giggling as his eyes roamed over them, and instead of shaking heads, some of them openly _glared_ at him.

There was one standout person though, that was giving him an approving look.

He wasn't sure if he should feel happy his friend Shinji was beaming at him, or worried.

 **Your relationship with Matou Shinji has increased by 35 points!**

Yeah, definitely worried.

 **XxX**

Turns out, Ayako knew a lot about downtown Fuyuki. She had lead both him and Tohsaka and she had shown them both good places to eat, to shop for clothes, heck, she had even shown them a store that sold nothing more than stuffed animals.

The seemed to bring a smile on both women's face, and that in turn, made him smile. Though he didn't exactly dislike going around and being lead by Ayako with Tohsaka, it still made him happy they smiled whenever they were talking about things.

Now, they were all seated in a café, quietly taking sips of their drinks as both women discussed schoolwork and other things. He lent one ear to the conversation, but his mind was elsewhere at the moment. Namely, his mind was on the park right across the road.

The dead trees that stood tall looked oppressive, the stale and brown grass looked like they belonged in a cemetery, and the general air seemed to look thicker the deeper he looked into it.

He knew the park; he knew the park since this was where Kiritsugu had found him, and where he had been reborn.

It's been eight to nine years, and still that place didn't look the least bit healed.

But it wasn't the oppressive air nor the dead vegetation that drew his eyes to it. No. Any other day his eyes would have darted towards the park if he passed by it, but today, his eyes were locked on a sign that hung in midair right between the tree lines.

 **Fuyuki Park – Danger Zone – Recommended level 10**

So… Ayako had been right. There were safe zones and danger zones scattered around. And he had inadvertently found one thanks to Ayako leading him around.

"Oi Emiya." He blinked as he faced the two women that were now looking at him. He turned towards Ayako, who was giving him a worried look. "You look like you're thinking about something heavy. Is it about the park? Did someone you know die there that day?"

That day of course, was the day the Fire happened. He frowned a little, before he shook his head. "No… it's nothing." He then scratched the back of his head. "Err, what were you two talking about? I didn't hear most of it."

Ayako gave him a blank look. "Yeah, of course you wouldn't. You've been staring at the park ever since we got here."

He frowned a little at Ayako's words. He hadn't meant to be rude, but still, did she really have to point it out to him? He knew he should have been paying attention to the conversation, but still…

"I think Emiya-kun just has a weird feeling about the park." He turned his head towards Tohsaka, who was quietly sipping her tea with closed eyes.

Ayako sighed. "Everyone has a weird feeling about the park. After all, it's built on people's corpses and bones." He actually blinked at Ayako's blunt words and tone. He forgot how… direct Ayako could be.

"Regardless of how many corpses are buried under there, it does give off an oppressive vibe." Tohsaka explained as her eyes turned towards the park. "It doesn't matter who you are, or what age or upbringing you had, you can literally _feel_ the oppressive air."

His eyes darted back towards the park. While it was true the air was oppressive to some extent, he didn't exactly feel it. It just… sort of permeated, like a stench he couldn't get rid of. In fact, he guessed if he stood right next to the park or god forbid, in it. He would no doubt smell rotting flesh and probably death.

Wait a minute… the weird vibe he got from Tohsaka didn't have anything to do with how she smelled like, right?

"I guess what you're saying is true." He heard Ayako say. "I mean, only about a hundred and fifty bodies were found, the rest were ashes and some weren't even recoverable. So I guess the park really has its past buried." He knew the pun wasn't intentional, Ayako may like to joke, but she didn't seem like the type to be _that_ thick-skinned.

For a few minutes, all three of them remained silent. His eyes were still glued to the park, scanning the trees and tree lines, but his mind was thinking about the past. He had only looked at the park because it had the words 'Danger Zone' to it, but now that the past and the dead people were brought up, he couldn't help but think back. Back to the flames that licked his skin, back to the people clawing at his feet screaming at him to help them, and how he just mindlessly walked on, ignoring the cries of help, ignoring the pleas of people dying.

But most of all, he remembered the people. He saw people in their primal states back then. How each person, probably with no relations to each other, stood and tried to help others, only for they themselves to die. He remembered how selfish he was that day, how he chose to save his own life, and how his selfishness soon turned to apathy, and then turned into defeat as he fell down face-up, his eyes blank.

And then he remembered Kiritsugu…

"Kya!" He was broken out of his reverie as he felt cold water splash on top of his head, drenching it before it fell to his uniform.

 **Brr! It's cold! But you can take it. Your VIT has increased by 1 point!**

Of all the things it could increase with, it had to be getting himself soaked with cold water.

"I'm so sorry!" He looked up as he felt hands brushing against his uniform and hair. He saw a waitress anxiously rubbing his hair and his chest with two handkerchiefs, her face laden with worry and apprehension. "The floor was slippery and I'm not used to wearing heels and I'm new here and this is my first job and-"

He blinked at the rapid fire words that came out of the waitress's mouth. It took him a few seconds to realize that she really looked terrified and that there was broken glass on the floor. Shaking his head, he held up a hand as he put a hand on the woman's shoulder.

"It's fine," He began, smiling a little as he tried to calm the waitress down. "Accidents happen to everyone. Just don't get all flustered about it so you can take responsibility for them." He lightly scolded the woman, before he turned towards the floor and kneeled down, picking up the broken pieces of glass in the water that may have been previously inside it.

"A-ah! I can clean it up sir! Pl-please don't-" The waitress began as she ducked right next to him. He gave her a (he hoped) calming smile, before he nodded his head.

"Of course you can." He said. "I'm just helping you." It wasn't really that big a deal. Sure he got wet, but getting angry wouldn't help anyone. Well, if you were a particularly vindictive person then yeah, blowing off steam was something you'd do. But he wasn't vindictive, in fact, he didn't particularly care that he got water poured over him.

 **You charmer you. Your reputation with Hiratsuka Oda has increased by 125 points!**

 **Your reputation with female populace in the Café has increased by 50 points!**

 **Your reputation with the male populace in the Café has increased by 38 points!**

 **Your reputation level with the Café staff has increased by 30 points!**

 **Your reputation with Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 30 points!**

 **Your reputation with Tohsaka Rin has increased by 30 points!**

 **Your reputation level with Mitsuzuri Ayako has changed from 'New Friend' to 'Friend'**

 **Your reputation level with Tohsaka Rin has changed from 'Acquaintance' to 'New Friend'**

 **Your reputation level with Hiratsuka Oda has changed from 'Stranger' to 'Admired/Crushing on'**

 **Your reputation level with the Café has changed from 'Customer' to 'Honored Customer'**

He actually balked at the last one, before he looked over towards the waitress, only to see her look away with a flushed face. Did he… what happened?

"Alright you charmer." He looked up in surprise as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He saw Tohsaka giving him a smile… that didn't exactly fit the grip she had on his shoulder.

He… shouldn't feel scared. Shouldn't he?

"Get changed in the bathroom. You'll catch a cold if you keep your shirt on." Tohsaka said. He wanted to argue, but a look from her made him rethink that course of action. Reluctantly, he stood up and made his way to the bathroom. But not without giving the waitress a placating smile.

A few minutes later, he came out of the bathroom wearing only his inner white and blue t-shirt. It was relatively wet, but comparing it to his jacket which was soaked, it was the lesser of two evils.

He went over to the table where Ayako and Tohsaka were still chatting, before he sat down right next to Ayako. "Don't get too close." He warned as both women turned to him. "I'm still wet and I don't really have a place to put my jacket in." Well, technically not true. He _could_ put the jacket in his bag, but that'd make his notebooks wet. The last thing he needed right now was failing a subject because he couldn't read watery squiggles.

"Here." He turned towards Ayako and saw her pull out a plastic bag from under the desk. He gave his frien an incredulous eye, to which Ayako shrugged in reply. "The waitress that got water all over you came here with it. She said you could put it here and she'll wash it for you."

He blinked at the last part. "Wait, she really said that?" He asked, confused as to why she would say that. It wasn't really that big a deal, at least, not a problem for him to wash it himself. Besides, it was a Sunday tomorrow, there weren't going to be classes to begin with.

"Why are you so surprised?" He turned towards the other woman. Tohsaka was giving him a raised eyebrow as if wondering about something. "You told her that she shouldn't get flustered and she should take responsibility right?"

He remembered yes, but he didn't recall telling the waitress herself to take responsibility. "I never told her to take responsibility." He began, making both women in his vicinity to look at him. "I just told her it'd be easier to take responsibility if she wasn't flustered. I can handle cleaning my own clothes."

He saw Ayako sigh, and Tohsaka shake her head. "Honestly," It was Tohsaka who spoke up. "You're either really dense, or you're just that way."

"Well! Anyway, maybe we should cut our outing short." He turned towards Ayako this time. "You're wet, and we wouldn't want you to get sick just because you're stuck listening to two girls talk." Ayako then smirked a little before giving him knowing look. "Not like you'll listen anyway."

He flushed at being called out. "I'm not normally like that you know." He mumbled as he looked away from both women. He felt his flush turn into a full blown blush when he heard both giggle.

 **XxX**

Following the episode in the Café in which the waitress had introduced herself as Hiratsuka Oda before she said their orders were on the house and that she still wanted to make up for getting his clothes wet, to which he calmly and quietly declined of course, telling the waitress that it wasn't that big a deal. Ayako decided that it was time to call it quits. Tohsaka agreed, stating that he needed to get home and get changed from his still wet clothes.

He wanted to argue, remembering 'Avalon' his 'Special Body Item' that prevented him from getting sick, but decided against it. There was no conceivable way he could argue that he wouldn't get sick, at least, now without revealing some things about his 'life'.

Now that his thoughts were on it however, he remembered that he still had one trait point he had to distribute, and he still wasn't anywhere close to actually picking one of the three traits.

While the (Determination) and (Observant) trait sounded good, he still had no idea if he should pick those over the (Heroic (Greater)) one. True both of the former options gave him positive additions in stats, the latter one was a greatly upgraded version of its lesser counterpart. Not to mention that it was labeled as (Greater) instead of (Greatest), which left his mind to wonder if he chose that trait for now, would the (Greatest) version of it appear when he got to pick his next Trait?

"Geez, for a guy, you sure don't like paying attention to women." He was taken out of his reverie as he looked to his left. Ayako was giving him an exasperated look, almost telling him he should stop thinking and start listening.

"Sorry," He apologized. "It's just that I have a lot on my mind."

"Alright then," Ayako began, her tone showing a hint of curiosity and annoyance in it. "If what you're thinking about is that important, why don't you share it with us? We're friends right?" Ayako challenged, almost daring him to say otherwise.

He may have the (Dense (Lesser)) trait, but he knew better than to take her up on that challenge. And he wouldn't really deny that they were friends either.

Still… he couldn't rightly talk about what he was thinking about.

"Err, it's nothing really. Just… something about a game." He winced a little at his words. Really? Of all the things he could say, he had to say it was because of a game? Technically it was true, but damn it! He just had to dig himself a hole!

"A game?" Ayako and Tohsaka spoke at the same time, making him wince a second time. "All this time you've been distracted because you were thinking about a _game_?" Ayako's voice was incredulous, almost disbelieving.

"It's not just because of that!" He defended himself. "It's just been on my mind ever since we left the Café. I wasn't distracted the _whole_ time because of it."

"But you have been distracted." Again, he winced. This time, the voice one that spoke was Tohsaka. "You haven't been distracted the whole time, but ever since we sat down in the Café, you have been."

He actually blinked at Tohsaka's words. Had he been so transparent?

"So really Emiya-kun, tell us. Why were you so distracted since we came into the Café?" Tohsaka prodded, her tone curious.

He pondered on whether he should tell the truth, but quickly squashed that idea. The truth would be him telling he could see floating words that said things about people that shouldn't be possible. So, he decided he should at least tell something that he thought they would find appropriate.

"The Fire… I was in it." He admitted. Memories began flooding back, but he shoved them aside to prevent him from blanking out. He wasn't uncomfortable talking about it, but the unpleasant memories really distracted him.

"You… were?" He heard Ayako's voice. He detected apprehensiveness and surprise, but that was to be expected. What was unexpected however, was concern. "You… don't have to talk about it you don't want to."

He shook his head. "I'm not uncomfortable admitting that I was in it. It just brings up memories of the time I was in it." Again, his mind was flooded with images of corpses and of people begging for help. He fought hard to push it back down, but he couldn't, he... it didn't feel right to just brush images off.

"I remember walking through it," He began, mostly as a means to stop himself from blanking out. "Through the fires, watching people scream for help, asking me to stop and help them." He looked down at his feet and at the ground. "I didn't. I just walked by them, walked past them without looking back. I think I even stepped on some of them."

"I walked over them, but I still saw people helping others." He recalled a woman pulling up a pillar to save a child. "But then those people that helped died in turn." And then seeing the pillar burst into flames and fall on top of the woman, he recalled the sickening crunch of a body being crunched. "And in the end, the people they saved died as well." He then remembered the child that was saved. Who fell down into open flames, catching fire and shouting in agony.

"It wasn't… It wasn't a… It…" He felt himself blanking out. He didn't know what to say next. Not because he was uncomfortable with talking about the Fire and his experiences in it. But because he wasn't used to… talking about it with other people.

He wasn't uncomfortable. Far from it really. It was just… a foreign thing for him, to talk about himself this much. He didn't know if he should tell them about Kiritsugu, or about his dream. He was just… deathly neutral to it.

 **You've acknowledged your own personality flaw. You have gained the (Survivor's Guilt) trait.**

 **Survivor's Guilt – You've survived a horrendous event. Your guilt about being the only survivor may not be obvious, but it has affected not just your mind, but also your soul. (This user has an inability to talk so freely about the 'Event'. This user also finds trouble having fun and enjoying life. He may be happy, but he is not living. -15 to VIT, +15 to STR, -300% experience gain to any social related action, (Concentration) skill changed to (Determination) skill.)**

 **Determination – Passive – 7 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user increased stats whenever they allocate attention and finish any task. Removes the previous hindrance of the (Concentration) skill. (Gives the user the 'Determination' status effect when fixated on a task, +0.7% increase to each base stat for every completed task you have allocated your full Determination for.)**

He had nothing to say as of this time about the windows that popped up, and instead, decided to just turn towards the two women walking beside him.

He stopped, which caused both women to stop, before he sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Listen, sorry that it's so awkward. But… It's just kind of weird talking about the Fire. A lot of people died, a lot of people I could have helped. But… I didn't because I would have died too." It wasn't easy for him to say that, it really wasn't. His whole being was to help people and to admit that he couldn't, admit that he could have but didn't… It just made him angry with himself.

For a few seconds, there was nothing. Neither women spoke, and when he looked up to look at them, he saw a look of apprehension and confusion in both of their faces. He guessed they didn't know what to say. Even he didn't know what to say either, he wasn't one for bearing his secrets like this. Nor was he one to look for anyone to sympathize with him.

Really, how was this easier than just telling them that his life was now a video game? At least then they wouldn't be so silent.

Finally, Ayako broke the silence. And it was with a sigh of… he didn't know if it was resignation or amusement. "Yeesh, we've been friends for less than three days and already you're bearing your soul." He felt his face flush at Ayako's words.

"Hey!-" He was about to retort, about to make a comeback that involved his embarrassed state of mind, but he was stopped as Ayako punched his shoulder. Effectively turning his embarrassment into pain as he clutched the offended limb. "Ow!"

"And another thing, don't feel sorry for yourself that you're the only one that survived." Ayako said, eyes narrowed as she glared at him. He rubbed his still hurting arm, but otherwise, locked eyes with his friend.

"But-" He tried to argue, but again, a sharp pain in his other arm stopped him in his tracks. "Hey! Stop hitting me!"

Ayako only raised an enclosed fist and waved it threateningly. "Keep talking like that and there'll be more where that came from." Ayako warned, her tone serious. He backed away a little bit, she probably wasn't kidding.

"I think what Ayako is saying," He turned his head towards Tohsaka, who had placed a placating hand on Ayako's shoulder. Surprisingly, Ayako dropped her raised fist and turned to look at Rin. "Is that you're not supposed to feel sorry for those that died. Instead, you should live for them. Enjoy a life that they couldn't."

Enjoy life… He remembered his latest trait, and wondered how hard that would be for him to do.

"So, no more talk about helping the people in the fire okay?" Tohsaka said, this time walking forward and placing a hand on his own shoulder. "You couldn't have been more than ten years old then, and I doubt a ten year old could have escaped with someone else. It's a miracle itself that you survived without any scars." Tohsaka's hand went from his shoulder to his face, touching the side of his cheek and brushing against it.

He may have the (Dense) trait, but the sheer intimacy of the act caused him to recoil and look in shock at Tohsaka.

"Wh-wh-what are you doing?!" He shouted, surprised at the sudden skinship that Tohsaka subjected him to. Tohsaka for her part, only smiled teasingly.

"Oh my, are you flustered Emiya-kun?" Tohsaka leaned forward and stared into his eyes. He tried his hardest to stare back, but he couldn't and just looked away.

"Ha!" He looked towards the other woman in their group, and saw Ayako clutching her stomach and laughing uncontrollably. "Hahaha!"

For a few seconds, he stared at Ayako, but pretty soon, another voice joined Ayako in laughing. He turned towards the owner, and saw Tohsaka herself giggling as she stared at their friend.

He didn't get why they were laughing so much, but he found that their mirth was contagious. He smiled as he stared at both women, before he shook his head.

"Ha…." Ayako let out a deep breath as she calmed herself. "Oh man, you two are just precious. It's kind of weird that the only person that can get such a rise out of you Shirou is Rin. Considering she doesn't like to show emotions too."

"Oh really?" Tohsaka's voice was strangely cold, but at the same time, there wasn't any animosity to it. "Is that what you see me as Ayako-chan? As someone cold?"

Ayako grinned before she nodded. "You're just provin' my point."

Again, he smiled. "You know I can see it to." He joined, agreeing with Ayako's view of Tohsaka. "You're kind of an open book sometimes Tohsaka."

Tohsaka turned her icy-glare towards him. "Oh? And what about you Emiya-kun? You don't seem like someone that can lie so easily. What does that tell about you?" Tohsaka pushed, her tone suggesting that he should try and get out of this.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm an open book. I can't lie to save my life." He admitted without thinking twice. "I'm not going to get into a lying match with someone that's a master at it."

Tohsaka flinched back, a look of horror on her face. "Do… you really see me that way?" Her tone sounded so sad and so hurt, that it probably looked like he was a bad guy to anyone watching.

Well, save for himself that is. "Yeah, I'm not falling for that." He said blankly as he turned around and began walking.

"H-hey! What's with that blank answer!" He heard Tohsaka shout as Ayako laughed.

True, his newest trait was eye-opening. But… for some reason, he felt much better now. No doubt it was thanks to both Ayako and Tohsaka. Their way of addressing his problem wasn't normal in any sense, but it was the way they knew how to address it. And while it may not work for most people, to him, it may have been the best possible way to do so.

 **You've found people willing to share your burden! Your relationship with Tohsaka Rin and Mitsuzuri Ayako has increased by 150 points!**

 **Your relationship level with Mitsuzuri Ayako has changed from "Friend" to "Good Friend".**

 **Your relationship level with Tohsaka Rin has changed from "New Friend" to "Friend/Suspicious of".**

 **You have gained the ability to form a party with Mitsuzuri Ayako and Tohsaka Rin called "Scarred Pasts".**

He felt another headache incoming. But ignored it as he just enjoyed the company of his two friends. He would worry about it later.

 **XxX**

 **Shirou stat sheet**

 **Name: Emiya Shirou**

 **Class: Magus (3rd rate)**

 **Title: Brownie (+10% increased reputation gain)**

 **LVL: 14**

 **HP: 851/851**

 **MP: 130/130**

 **STR: 15 (50)**

 **VIT: 11 (46)**

 **DEX: 17**

 **AGI: 15 (25)**

 **INT: 15 (-7)**

 **WIS: 15 (+5)**

 **LUK: N/A (-5)**

 **EXP to next level: 1320**

 **Stat points unused: 0**

 **Skill points unused: 0**

 **Trait points unused: 1**

 **Status: ? (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill),**

 **Helpful (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain). Levelheaded (Allows the calm assessment of any kind of situation). Heroic (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to**

 **STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to LUK). Quick thinker (+10 to AGI, +10 to WIS), (This user has an inability to talk so freely about the 'Event'. This user also finds trouble having fun and enjoying life. He may be happy, but he is not living. -15 to VIT, +15 to STR, -100% experience gain to any skill related to social interactions, (Concentration) skill changed to (Determination) skill.)**

 **Skills:**

 **Tracing – Active – Level 19 – An offshoot combination of the (Structural Grasping) skill and the**

 **(Projection) Skill. This skill allows one to understand the core of anything they choose to understand.**

 **Structural Grasping – Passive/Active – 45 – Passively grants perception, an ability that allows the user to understand the going's on around him and spot the tiniest details. Active: Grants the user the ability to delve deeper into an objects structure**

 **Cooking – Passive/Active – 55 – Passively grants a bonus to stats when cooking (+10% to all stats when cooking). Active: Grants the user the ability to make stat increasing food.**

 **Mechanic's hands – Passive – 40 – Grants the user an understanding of how most doohickeys and doo-dads work. Give the user an understanding of how to fix and/or upgrade certain items.**

 **Vigorous (from Avalon) – Passive – Max – Due to the user's special body item, this user doesn't suffer from illnesses and has drastically increased health regeneration. Also, this unit doesn't suffer from age inhibitors like most others.**

 **Determination – Passive – 7 – This skill allows the user to focus on the task at hand, granting the user whenever they allocate attention to any task. Removes the previous hindrance of the (Concentration) skill. (Gives the user the 'Determination' status effect when fixated on a task, +0.7% increase to each stat for each completed task you have allocated your full determination for.)**

 **Archery (Kyudo) – Passive/Active – 1 – Your arrow has already hit, thus, you need not worry about your shot. This skill grants the user increased perception and awareness when using a (Kyudo) bow. (Passively gives +2 to WIS and +2 to DEX per level up when a (Kyudo) bow is equipped, and +1 to WIS and +1 to DEX per level up when using any other bow. When active, grants the user +8% bonus stats when using any sort of bow, drains 5 MP per second active.)**

 **Reinforcement – Active – Level 4 – No, it does not make things harder. This skill allows you to transfer your prana into an object to better its molecular structure and 'Reinforce' its basic principles. (Actively drains 10 prana per minute for each (Reinforced) item you're using.)**

 **Traits:**

 **? : This user is a *ERROR*. His skill set allows him to [Trace] *ERROR* to the point that it feels like the original. Due to the very nature of this user, he cannot be more than a 3rd rate magus at best. (+30 to VIT, +30 to STR, +?% experience to [Tracing] and [Structural Grasping] skill)**

 **Helpful: This user is a helpful person. (-50% to self-worth, +5% increased reputation gain.)**

 **Levelheaded – This user has the ability to think clearly and make good decisions, even under intense pressure. (Allows the user to be calm in situations that would otherwise make others panic.)**

 **Heroic – This user is a very brave person. This user will stop at nothing to save people, even going so far as to give up themselves to try and save a total stranger. (-50% to self-worth, +10% reputation gain with the opposite sex, +5 to STR, +5 to VIT, +5 to AGI, -5 to INT, -5 to WIS, -5 to luck.)**

 **Dense (Lesser) – This user is a bit thick in the head. But through understanding when to read a situation and how to interpret the situation, you've gained a bit of empathy. (-3 to INT, -5 to WIS, +20 to VIT)**

 **Quick Thinker – This user thinks fast on their feet. This trait allows the user to make up plans on the spot and to act on those plans quickly. (+10 to AGI, +10 to WIS)**

 **Survivors Guilt – You've survived a horrendous event. Your guilt about being the only survivor may not be obvious, but it has affected not just your mind, but also your soul. (This user has an inability to talk so freely about the 'Event'. This user also finds trouble having fun and enjoying life. He may be happy, but he is not living. -15 to VIT, +15 to STR, -100% experience gain to any skill related to social interactions, (Concentration) skill changed to (Determination) skill.)**

 **XxX**

 **Hoo boy, I can already read the people reviewing about Shirou's choices with the stat and skill points distributed.**

 **Ah well, nothing ventured nothing gained.**

 **As it is though, this chapter introduces not only Rin, but also the Mysterious Stranger. Or at least, the Mysterious Stranger somewhat. Both will play parts in the incoming arc, but for now, this chapter showcases the relationship parts of Shirou's 'game'. Or as some of my reviewers had started to call it, his 'Dating Sim' social life. So all in all, people may find this chapter boring and unnecessary. But like I said in the last chapter and the summary, a lot of things are happening all at the same time. Like most RPG games. (Looking at you Xenoverse Chronicles and .Hack G/U.)**

 **Anyway, the focus next chapter would be the incoming arc, which I'm sure most of you probably guessed what it would be. Seeing as how I already introduced Rin and the Mysterious Stranger and how *redacted*. Oh wait, that was a spoiler? Well, alright then.**

 **Also, I am well aware how OP the 'Determination' skill is. But here's my counter argument, how OP do you think most of the things are compared to a regular 3** **rd** **rate magus? And anyway, there's a downside to it. Even though it removes the negatives of the 'Concentration' skill, it adds the 'Determination' status effect when Shirou allocates all his attention on one thing. Now, who's to say that's a good thing?**

 **I've given clues people, no need to keep asking if you can't see it. Be like Sherlock, construe the clues I gave you, and then think of what I might have planned.**

 **C.O.Y.L out, peace!**

 **One last thing that I want to talk about. If you don't want to read a thorough review/analyzation of the manga series/anime Akame Ga Kill, stop reading now**

 **I know I've said I liked (Read: Love) Majikoi. But Akame ga Kill... is just something that I don't like. I gave it a try, and for a while, I had no opinion on it. But as time went on and the more I read it, the more I realized that each individual character is just... a copy of each other. Each character has some past that scarred them, and each character then goes apeshit crazy and makes things worse for everyone else.**

 **Aside from that, Night Raid talk about reforming the government, yet they don't reform the people. They want the government to bend knee to them, or at least, the revolutionary army. Now that is to say that the government isn't as bad, seeing as they want the people to bend knee to them. But being completely honest here, how can you reform something that is monitored and is run by _people_ when you don't reform the people themselves? So what, they overthrow the people in the government, only to replace them with people the same as them? Only instead of the previous government's ideals, they replace it with their own? Are they gonna start silencing people that don't agree with them too?**

 **Aside from all that. The series itself is just grimderp instead of grimdark. It tries so hard to pander to people's want to see dark things happening that it's comical. Even Esdeath, what with her genocidal tendencies, gives off the vibe that she's 2-dimensional instead of a deep and enriching character. I get that the author of the series wants to make sure that everyone sees that not everyone sees the world as you do, but you have to make it believable, not make it one extreme side looks over at another extreme side and sees nothing but contempt. Even Wave and Tatsumi are two extreme sides of one another. So of course they're gonna butt-heads.**

 **Well anyway, that's my two-cents on the matter of Akame ga Kill. And you're asking why I'm telling you all this? Well, simply because my thoughts on Akame ga Kill can be perfectly moved over to another story on this site. And seeing as another person has brought it up again and every time it's brought up again I'm triggered, well, you get this.**

 **Seriously. Don't mention it again. But if you want to discuss things about my views on Akame ga Kill or that other thing, PM me instead of reviewing. That way we can have a two-way conversation going instead of me posting a wall of text responding to people that have asked the same question in another chapter of my stories.  
**


End file.
